The first book to be featured this season on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club is Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin – a brilliant debut novel from a fresh, exciting new voice which asks – who gets to decide how we are remembered – and who we will become?
The book will be released on 24 April and Niamh’s interview with Sara is on BBC Sounds from Tuesday 15 April.
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We have an exclusive extract.
Ordinary Saints
Can you imagine it? I’d say to them. Can you imagine me there in the front row in Saint Peter’s Square? The lesbian sister of a literal saint.
Brought up in a devout household in Ireland, Jay is now living in London with her girlfriend, determined to live day to day and not think too much about either the future or the past. But when she learns that her beloved older brother, who died in a terrible accident, may be made into a Catholic saint, she realises she must at last confront her family, her childhood and herself…
Inspired by the author’s own devout upbringing, Ordinary Saints is a brilliant debut novel from a fresh, exciting new voice which asks – who gets to decide how we are remembered – and who we will become?
About the author
Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin was the winner of the inaugural PFD Queer Fiction Prize and was also shortlisted for the Women’s Prize Trust Discoveries Prize in 2022. Her début literary novel is Ordinary Saints.
“Inspired by my own upbringing in a devout family, Ordinary Saints asks how we, particularly as queer people, can reconcile ourselves with the beliefs, communities and selves we’ve had to leave behind. The premise is also based on real events. In October 2020, I read about the beatification of Carlo Acutis, an Italian teenager who is expected to become the first millennial saint. I couldn’t stop thinking about his family and how the cause for canonisation, on top of the grief of losing a son or brother, would affect them. This became the instigating question of my novel and my protagonist ‘the emigrant lesbian sister of a literal saint’ appeared soon afterwards.” – Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin, 2024
A word from Niamh
“I couldn’t be more delighted that Ordinary Saints has been chosen for the Radio 2 Book Club. It’s a story about grief, family, queer identity and the legacy of the Catholic Church. But underneath all that is the universal question: how do we come to terms with our pasts and grow into the people we want to be?”
“My local libraries were essential to this novel. They provided me with research texts, inspiration, and a warm space to work when my heating bills sky-rocketed halfway through the first draft! During those long days writing in the library, I saw and heard all that librarians do to care for people in our communities, from teaching kids about books to supporting marginalised people with accessing information they need.”
“It’s a dream come true to have my novel in libraries, and to share it with discerning and devoted readers all over the country. I really hope you enjoy.”
Get involved
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