The Irish writer Cathy Sweeney’s short fiction has been widely praised, her prose likened to that of Samuel Beckett and Lydia Davis. Her blistering debut novel, Breakdown, displays an impressive economy of language as the middle-aged narrator leaves her husband and two children asleep in their suburban Dublin home. We learn their names but she remains anonymous, defined by her roles: mother and wife.
The woman’s unplanned escape from domesticity takes her on a train and ferry from Rosslare to Fishguard in Wales. Over the course of her 48-hour journey we learn of past trauma, artistic aspirations and the disappointments and infidelities she experienced during her marriage. It has been a prolonged unravelling – “‘Happily married’ is not suddenly replaced by ‘unhappily married’. There is a long interim period” – and she recognises that her departure will have lasting repercussions: “It is possible to step out of one life into another. But there is no going back.”
