Review
The Story of Before is a bewitching read, a book that transports you back to the world of childhood, where everything outside of yourself is a mystery to be unraveled. Beautifully observed, the novel conjures up the landscape of nineteen-seventies Dublin as effectively as a time machine. I can't recommend it highly enough --Kathleen MacMahon
Stairs revels in sharp physical description, tinged with implication... An assured debut --Sunday Times
With this moving and evocative novel, Stairs has won her spurs as an emerging new voice in Irish quality women's fiction --Irish Independent
As literary Ireland continues to await the definitive novel of Celtic tiger Ireland, first-time novelist Susan Stairs has swept in under the radar to pique our interest with a pre-tiger-era story which makes for perhaps more beguiling reading --Sunday Business Post
An astoundingly assured piece of work which is beautifully written, poignant and compelling --Press Association
A tale of childhood secrets and lies with a wonderful sense of time and place --Bookseller
With this moving and evocative novel, Susan Stairs has won her spurs as an emerging new voice in Irish quality women's fiction. --Siobhan Hegarty, Irish Independent
A wonderfully evocative book with a beautiful dusting of magic brushed through each page --Rozz.ie
Suspenseful... a tale of childhood secrets and lies, with a wonderful sense of time and place... --The Bookseller
By turns eerie, funny, and heartbreaking and nail-bitingly tense, this is a page turner that brings the times and the characters vividly to life. --We Love This Book
...An engrossing read that I really found difficult to put down. I found myself living Ruth's life for her and hoping against hope that her instinct that something bad would happen was wrong. This is an outstanding debut from Susan Stairs that will keep the reader turning the pages late into the night. --Random Things Through My Letterbox
Set in Ireland. Check. Suspenseful tale. Check. Debut novelist. Check. Yep this one has my name written all over it! --Kimbofo, Reading Matters
A gripping read --Amanda, One More Page
...this year has seen a remarkable flowering of Irish fiction with a raft of writers emerging on to the literary scene and displaying a dazzling range of styles and preoccupations... of course, there's no escaping the question of the past in Irish fiction... the past is less about a nation and more about the landscape of childhood, in which things are so unpredictable and full of danger: in The Story of Before, it's the halcyon fields of suburban Dublin in the 1970s, The Waltons and cowboy films on a Sunday evening, and the terrible things that can happen, even in paradise. --Alison Walsh, Sunday Independent
Intriguing… The Story of Before is a portrait of children struggling to understand the adult world, with dangerous and unsettling consequences --Rachael English, Irish Independent
About the Author
Born in London, Susan Stairs has lived in Ireland since early childhood. Involved in the art business for many years, she has written extensively about Irish art and artists. She received an MA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin in 2009 and was shortlisted for the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award in the same year. She lives in Dublin with her family.
