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Eggshells, the debut novel from Trinity alum Caitriona Lally, centres around and focuses almost solely on Vivian, its unhinged and isolated hero. Th e novel is at times hysterically funny, and at times tragic. It’s told from Vivian’s perspective as she journeys unemployed through post-tiger Dublin in search of magic, faeries and her real changeling parents, as well as a friend called Penelope – good sense of humour not required.

The novel delivers little in the way of conventional plot. It opens with Vivian exploring the house she has just inherited from her great-aunt with new eyes now that it is hers. Somewhere off the North Circular Road, the house becomes the increasingly unkempt and fi lthy base from which Vivian launches various expeditions into the heart of Dublin. One day she examines several kiosks, checking the length of the one on Lansdowne Road in particular to see if her bed would fi t in it. On another day she commissions a taxi driver and his wife to drive her back and forth over every bridge on the Liffey, with a drachma in her mouth, in search of Charon. Once home from each of her trips she meticulously records her route onto greaseproof paper, the shape of which she then describes: “Today I walked the ECG of a patient who flatlined briefly, before rallying into a healthy peak.”

While there are other characters in the novel, they are never fully fleshed out. Eggshells devotes its attention on Vivian and the streets she fl oats through. Vivian’s eye becomes a new lens to see Dublin through, a lens that focuses on the important stuff like which street signs have been blued out by leprechauns, and to whom the benches across from the Trinity Arts block have been dedicated. Vivian is asked for money several times, wanders around hospital cafés and clothes departments, and notes the bullet marks in the walls of the GPO. Lally writes about Dublin like it’s an old friend.

Reading Eggshells is an intense but hugely rewarding experience. The aimless apathy of Vivian reflects the situation of many jobless people in Ireland today –  unemployment can be a lonely, overwhelming situation. In spite of her eccentricity, Vivian makes for a surprisingly relatable character, in her struggle to find purpose. Poignant, beautifully hopeful and absolutely hilarious, Lally’s debut is not to be missed.

Eggshells is going into its second print run in the first week of October, and it can be purchased at libertiespress.com for €11.69.