Tennis Lessons

For fans of I MAY DESTROY YOU and ADULTS, readers who want to laugh, cry, gasp and nod along. The brilliantly brave and darkly funny story of a girl's tortuous and spectacular journey to womanhood, stopping at each year along the way.

For fans of I MAY DESTROY YOU and FLEABAG and for readers who want to laugh and cry: the brave, beautiful, sometimes brutal story of a young misfit and her rocky road to womanhood, stopping at each year along the way. 
 
 
'I loved Tennis Lessons so much. Susannah is a phenomenally talented writer' ELIZABETH DAY 
 
'A raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story' LOUISE O'NEILL 
 
'Incredibly funny . . . by turns charming and disgusting and I loved it' NELL FRIZZELL 
 
 
You're strange and wrong. You've known it from the beginning. 
 
This is the voice that rings in your ears. Because you never say the right thing. You're a disappointment to everyone. You're a far cry from beautiful - and your thoughts are ugly too. 
 
You seem bound to fail, bound to break. 
 
But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend, to feel the first tentative tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the affront of your unruly body. 
 
You just need to find your place. 
 
From dead pets and crashed cars to family traumas and misguided love affairs, Susannah Dickey's revitalizing debut novel plunges us into the private world of one young woman as she navigates her rocky way to adulthood. 
 
 
'Brilliant . . . a wonderful writer, hugely talented, very funny and insightful' ALAN DAVIES 
 
'Propulsive . . . brilliantly vivid . . . stays in the mind long after reading' IRISH TIMES 
 
'A beautifully written and psychologically incisive bildungsroman...the arrival of a young writer to watch' OBSERVER

This is a raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story. Tennis Lessons heralds the arrival of a startling new voice in literary fiction

An incredibly funny and poignant portrait of what it is to be young, female and human. The whole thing is witty - the narrative voice, the dialogue, the plot and the detail - while also having searing moments of sadness, discomfort and cruelty. Susannah Dickey has created a world and a main character that is by turns disgusting and charming and I loved it.

A beautifully written and psychologically incisive bildungsroman...the arrival of a young writer to watch

Brilliant . . . a wonderful writer, hugely talented, very funny and insightful.

Propulsive . . . brilliantly vivid . . . stays in the mind long after reading

Absolutely brilliant . . . touchingly captures the awkward, aching longing of a misfit . . . darkly funny

Wonderfully shocking . . . a stunning, original debut.

Fundamentally intimate . . . beguiling . . . A novel about being normal that is anything but.

Terrific... astute, tender, raw... very funny

elevating the ordinary with luscious prose . . . [Tennis Lessons] gives us the magical ability of seeing this tired old world with brand new eyes. What an invaluable gift, and what a beautiful book.

Recalling the grotesque of Christine Schutt and Deborah Levy, Susannah Dickey’s Tennis Lessons is an achingly vital novel, a work of blood and flesh, convulsing in the heat of mortality.

Dickey scorchingly captures the awkward, aching longing of a misfit...shot through with honesty

So compelling . . . darkly funny . . . a powerful account of a girl becoming a woman.

A fresh-eyed read. It's funny and honest, brutally so, and every so often sneaks up and punches you right in the guts. It's the kind of book you read in one furious sitting, then find yourself mulling over for weeks to come. Susannah Dickey's got a strange and sublime way of seeing the world.

Tennis Lessons is a singular creation - a vivid, funny, emotionally intelligent dissection of an ordinary life.

From dead pets and crashed cars to family traumas and misguided love affairs, Susannah Dickey's revitalizing debut novel plunges us into the private world of one young woman as she navigates her rocky way to adulthood. 
 
 
'I loved Tennis Lessons so much. Susannah is a phenomenally talented writer' ELIZABETH DAY 
 
'A raw, fierce, shockingly honest coming-of-age story' LOUISE O'NEILL 
 
'Incredibly funny . . . by turns charming and disgusting and I loved it' NELL FRIZZELL 
 
 
You're strange and wrong. You've known it from the beginning. 
 
This is the voice that rings in your ears. Because you never say the right thing. You're a disappointment to everyone. You're a far cry from beautiful - and your thoughts are ugly too. 
 
You seem bound to fail, bound to break. 
 
But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend, to feel the first tentative tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the affront of your unruly body. 
 
You just need to find your place. 
 
 
'Brilliant . . . a wonderful writer, hugely talented, very funny and insightful' ALAN DAVIES 
 
'Propulsive . . . brilliantly vivid . . . stays in the mind long after reading' IRISH TIMES 
 
'A beautifully written and psychologically incisive bildungsroman...the arrival of a young writer to watch' OBSERVER

Susannah Dickey

[A] treat . . . vividly compelling . . . a rare talent, and certainly one to watch

A vivid and beautifully written novel that confirms [Dickey] as one of literature's major new talents ... its quiet despair is genuinely affecting

Common Decency is a study of alienation and connection, of love and grief, written by an author who truly cares about language and understands its power from within. Susannah Dickey is a phenomenal talent and I loved this novel.

I loved Common Decency, a perfectly judged glimpse at two variations of loneliness and how they inform and relate to one another. Such a surprising, clever, sad and strange book which I am still thinking about long after finishing - and yet such a propulsive joy to read too.

Susannah Dickey has an uncanny ability to get right to the dark heart of her characters, blending acidic observation with a generous side of kindness. Common Decency is sharp as tacks, extremely funny and deeply moving. This novel is very good company.'

With hints of Fleabag, Ottessa Moshfegh and Sally Rooney, it's strong, compelling and occasionally very funny stuff...seriously readable

Quite simply, one of the funniest and most insightful novelists writing today. Her turn of phrase, ear for dialogue, wry humour and power of observation is masterful.

A poignant, deft portrayal of love, obsession and grief

Rich and absorbing . . . a writer coming into her own, assured in what it is she is trying to do. . . thrilling and engaging. We are carried along by the prose; we trust it knows where it's going.

This witty and psychologically astute novel is a welcome, engaging read from a talented young writer.

[A]n unsettling, bewitching tale about loneliness, connection and obsession

Absolutely brilliant, nauseating, compelling - genuinely funny not just 'publishing funny' - read it as soon as you can

[M]ellifluous, luminescent prose . . . vivid, luscious stuff. The style is sublime...

Common Decency exudes humour, empathy and perceptive insights that are sure to linger in the minds of readers

Pulsing with unexpected bursts of mischief and shot through with insight and empathy

A wonderful book . . . vivid and relatable . . . Dickey tells this story confidently ... and there are moments of real beauty

If you've ever speculated about, or envied, or resented, or desired the life of someone proximate but not intimate to you, you might find this novel as compelling as I did. It's deeply funny, the imagery is enviable and it's painful to read in places because it captures our abject, vulnerable conditions. Highly recommended!

A dark, intimate novel of love, grief and obsession

The lives of a bereaved young woman and her neighbour who is consumed by her affair with a married man entwine in this dark, compelling and compassionate coming-of age novel. 
 
'A poignant, deft portrayal of love, obsession and grief' STYLIST 
 
'Susannah Dickey is a phenomenal talent and I loved this novel.' ELIZABETH DAY 
 
'I loved Common Decency . . . such a propulsive joy to read too.' MEGAN NOLAN 
 
 
FROM THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF TENNIS LESSONS 
 
 
In an apartment building in Belfast, two women wrestle with the sorrows and spectres of love and loss. 
 
Since her mother's death, Lily has withdrawn from the world, trapped between grief and anger. She has to break out of this damaging cycle - but how? 
 
Upstairs, Siobhán is consumed by her affair with a married man. Her days revolve around his sporadic texts and rare visits. She barely notices the strange girl who lives below and dawdles in the foyer. 
 
But Lily is keeping a close eye on her neighbour, whose life seems so much better and more fulfilling than her own. When resentment evolves into something darker and more urgent, she decides to teach Siobhán a lesson... 
 
 
'Sharp as tacks, extremely funny and deeply moving. This novel is very good company.' JAN CARSON

Susannah Dickey

Praise for Common Decency

Elizabeth Day's Book of the Year

[A] treat . . . vividly compelling . . . a rare talent, and certainly one to watch

A vivid and beautifully written novel that confirms [Dickey] as one of literature's major new talents ... its quiet despair is genuinely affecting

Elizabeth Day's Book of the Year

[A] treat . . . vividly compelling . . . a rare talent, and certainly one to watch

A vivid and beautifully written novel that confirms [Dickey] as one of literature's major new talents ... its quiet despair is genuinely affecting

Elizabeth Day's Book of the Year

[A] treat . . . vividly compelling . . . a rare talent, and certainly one to watch

A vivid and beautifully written novel that confirms [Dickey] as one of literature's major new talents ... its quiet despair is genuinely affecting

Books by Susannah Dickey

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