Little Island has acquired Things I Know by Helena Close.
Helena Close‘s debut, The Gone Book (2020) was described by Donal Ryan as ‘dark and gritty, desperately sad and wildly funny.”
It was selected for the 2020 Read for Empathy reading list and won a prestigious White Raven Award in 2021.
It was the first-ever Irish-published book to receive a nomination for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2020 and the Irish Literacy Association Awards 2021.
Things I Know
Things I Know explores the difficult subjects of suicide, guilt, mental illness and recovery with the same unflinching honesty.
Close has a gift for capturing authentic teenage voices, something which won her acclaim for The Gone Book.
The book centres around Saoirse, who can’t wait to leave school – but just before the final exams her ex-boyfriend dies by suicide. Everyone blames Saoirse, and her rumbling anxieties spiral out of control.
Saoirse feels herself flailing in swirling waters that threaten to suck her into the depths. Can she, against all odds, rescue the self she used to know?
Little Island editor Siobhán Parkinson said that it “was an unalloyed pleasure to work with Helena Close again. Her understanding of teenage anguish is deep and personal, and her voice is both pure Limerick and unerringly true to a universal youth experience.”
Close said that she was compelled to write the novel, saying that mental health issues need to be talked about.
“Young people, in particular, deserve stories that help them process the world and their place in it.”
Things I Know will be published in May 2022 by Little Island. A hand-numbered limited edition run of bound advance reading copies with a bespoke cover will be made available to reviewers in March 2022.
