Massive thanks to Padráig O’Meiscill, Colin Walsh, Sophie Stein, Marcus Bradshaw, and Mark Kelleher for reading early drafts and for listening to me ramble on. Thank you to Ciara Conlan, and to Lisa, Colm, Ollie, and Jackie Conlan for all of their support. Thank you to my extended family and all of my friends for keeping me going through tough times. Huge thanks to Mary Ellen Nagle for agreeing to be my friend at a short story festival in Cork, and good luck with ever getting rid of me. Thanks to Laura Sheary, Niamh McCann, and Emer McGuckian for providing me with sea swims, soul food, and some of the best days of my life.
A special thanks to Cappagh GAA and Camogie Club, especially to the team of 2019 and Niall Williams, for always keeping us tuned in.
Finally, thank you to my family for putting up with me. I had to come home to write this story. To my mam and dad, Michael and Stephanie, Catherine and Cathal, and Sarah, Paul, and Sophie. This book wouldn’t exist without you. Le grá, Lou x.
About the Author
LOUISE NEALON is a writer from County Kildare, Ireland. In 2017, she won the Seán Ó’Faoláin International Short Story Competition and was the recipient of the Francis Ledwidge Creative Writing Award. She has been published in the Irish Times, Southword, and The Stinging Fly. Nealon received a degree in English literature from Trinity College Dublin in 2014 and a master’s degree in creative writing from Queen’s University Belfast in 2016. She lives on the dairy farm where she was raised, and Snowflake is her first novel.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SNOWFLAKE. Copyright © 2021 by Louise Nealon. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Manilla Press, an imprint of Bonnier Books UK.
FIRST U.S. EDITION
Cover design and illustration by Robin Bilardello
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-307395-1
Version 08182021
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-307393-7
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