The Amendments - by Niamh Mulvey

About the Book

A sweeping family saga that tells the story of three Irish women and their struggles to find love, meaning and freedom against a backdrop of enormous social and cultural change as Ireland marks time with a series of abortion referendums.

Book Synopsis

Tender and profoundly moving, The Amendments is at once the novel of a nation over four decades, a love story, and an intricate family drama that will break your heart.

'An extraordinary achievement. The Amendments is about a lot of things - love, family, girlhood, growing up, sex, legacy, compassion - all blended into a moving plot' - Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist

Nell and her partner Adrienne are about to have a baby. For Adrienne, parenthood is the start of a new life. For Nell, it's the reason the two of them are sitting in a therapist's office. Because she can't go into this without facing the painful truth: that she has been a mother before.

For Dolores, Nell's mother, the news also brings a reckoning: with the way her daughter's life unfolded fifteen years ago, with its inextricable ties to her own past, and with the tragedy that neither of them have spoken about since . . .

'Engrossing and moving' - Emma Donoghue, author of Room
'It cuts to the heart of what it means to be human' - Elizabeth Macneal, author of The Doll Factory
'As significant as it is enjoyable' - Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
'Wonderfully compelling' - Joseph O'Connor, author of Star of the Sea

Set in Ireland against the backdrop of a series of abortion referendums, The Amendments is the debut novel from Niamh Mulvey, author of Hearts and Bones, and was selected by the Irish Independent, the Irish Times, the Irish Journal and VIP as one of the most anticipated novels of the year.

Review Quotes

"Niamh Mulvey's wonderfully compelling characters and deft, clear prose offer great pleasure. Her sense of political and cultural change is sharp, and the beauty she finds in days of struggle is haunting." --Joseph O'Connor, author of My Father's House and Star of the Sea

"A smart, subtle, engrossing and moving novel that gives voice to so much that's unspoken about Ireland and about youth." --Emma Donoghue, Booker prize-shortlisted author of Room

"An extraordinary achievement. The Amendments is about a lot of things - love, family, girlhood, growing up, sex, legacy, compassion - all blended into a moving plot, expertly handled. Wonderful." --Jessie Burton, bestselling author of The Miniaturist

"I loved The Amendments. Rare is the novel that is as significant as it is enjoyable: her characters glimmer with heart and soul, her writing is beautiful and her themes profound. It's a book about mothers and daughters, friendship, hope, bravery and what it means to believe in something. A fantastic and important achievement.'" --Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters

"Rarely has a book moved me as The Amendments has: it cuts to the heart of what it means to be human, to want, to love, to be a mother or a daughter or a woman moving through the world. It's a triumph of a book, and a vital one too" --Elizabeth Macneal, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory

"I genuinely loved The Amendments. I found it such a tender, compassionate, deeply believable novel. I'd defy any Irish woman, in particular, to read this and not feel that sense of innate recognition that all the best writing elicits." --Niamh Hargan, author of Twelve Days in May

"In her debut novel, Mulvey explores Ireland's history of control over women and their fertility through the story of Nell and her partner Adrienne" --Irish Journal

"Online heat has been rising slowly but suely around Niamh Mulvey's intriguing debut novel, The Amendments . . . Abortion, the Church, teenage pregnancy, the Celtic Tiger - Mulvey has covered plenty of ground." --Irish Independent

"Delving into the lives of three generations of women, we see how Ireland has changed over the course of one family . . . While Nell and Dolores feel like they're miles apart, their stories are more similar than they expected." --VIP

"Niamh Mulvey has written a deft and deeply moving fiction about cross-generational secrets and longings, because such is the stuff of our everyday, dramatic, secretive lives. This is a work of beauty and insight." --Ed O'Loughlin, author of The Last Good Funeral of the Year

"There's so much casually imparted wisdom in Mulvey's writing that reading her work feels as if you've been through therapy without realising it. The Amendments is a compelling, beautifully observed novel about the long reach of shame in the lives of Irish women across generations." --Sarah Gilmartin, author of Service

"A fine achievement from a writer of rare gifts" --Joseph O'Connor, best books of 2024

About the Author

Niamh Mulvey is the author of the short story collection, Hearts and Bones, which was shortlisted for the John McGahern Award. Her short fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly, Banshee, Southword and The Irish Times and has been shortlisted for the Seán O'Faoláin Prize. She lives in Kilkenny, Ireland. The Amendments is her first novel.