They're calling it "expansive" which I think means "quite long for a debut novel"

Interrupting whatever regular programming looks like to tell you how to pre-order Frida Slattery As Herself.

I started writing Frida Slattery As Herself exactly this time three years ago, a grey January when I’d just moved home to Dublin.

It’s about an actor (Frida Slattery) and a writer-director (John Reddan) who meet in Dublin in 2005 and go on to have an outsize influence in one another’s lives. More on that further down.

First of all, the facts: It’ll be published and on bookshelves on 7 May 2026, both here in Ireland, in the UK (Scribner) and the US (Ecco).

Here’s the cover for the UK, Ireland and various Commonwealth countries. A jaunty blue!

Here’s the cover you’ll see in US bookshops. The illustration is by Rosie McGuinness and I think she looks so cute and pensive.

Anyway, back to the novel itself. Frida Slattery As Herself is a story about a woman and a man - Frida Slattery, an actor, and John Reddan, a writer-director working in the theatre in Dublin. When they meet, they’re in their early 20s and they’re both trying to get their careers off the ground. Things are weird. It’s a midweek afternoon in 2005. They’re in the back room of Kehoe’s on South Anne Street. It’s not exactly love at first sight - it’s a little more complicated than that. But from the get-go, Frida and John are drawn to each other for one reason or another. Personally, professionally, romantically. It’s all piled on top of each other. In essence, each of them represents potential for the other, and that’s a messy place to begin a relationship.

The novel then follows them through 17 years, in Dublin, London, New York and Los Angeles, and it’s told through the projects they work on together, and the time they spend apart. It’s about love, artistic collaboration, and two people coming of age, together and apart. It is quite long (just under 500 pages) and the word that’s been thrown around a lot is ‘expansive’.

All in all, writing it consumed me for close to two years, and even though it’s been many months since I last opened the Word document, Frida Slattery and John Reddan are still living rent-free in my head.

Would you like them to live rent-free in yours? If so, pre-order Frida Slattery As Herself today! They’re calling it ‘sublime’ (Jessica Stanley), ‘utterly delightful’ (Elif Batuman) and ‘both epic and intimate, funny and wise’ (Roisín O’Donnell). (And I’m ‘totally grateful’ to each of these amazing authors for reading my novel and sharing their thoughts on it.)

How to pre-order

In the UK

Waterstones

Bookshop.org

In Ireland

Kenny’s

Books Upstairs

In the US

HarperCollins US

Of course, you can also do my favourite thing - pop into your local independent bookshop and have them pre-order a copy for you.

I loved writing this novel and I’m going to post a little more about the writing of it in the coming months. Before then, here’s more of what other people saying about Frida Slattery As Herself:

‘Gorgeous, immersive… both epic and intimate, funny and wise’ Roisín O’Donnell, author of NESTING

‘Moving, thought-provoking, and utterly delightful’ Elif Batuman, author of THE IDIOT and EITHER/OR

‘I inhaled this consuming and addictive novel about love, artistic agency, and the charged complexities of creation, collaboration and power. Frida Slattery and John Reddan will stay with you long after you close the pages of this utterly absorbing debut’ ─ Francesca Reece, author of GLASS HOUSES

‘An expansive, deeply felt love letter to artistic expression, as compelling and ambitious as it is beautifully written. Ana Kinsella handles big themes – power, desire, success – with great subtlety and skill. I loved it’ ─ LISA OWENS, author of NOT WORKING and NATURAL DISASTER

‘Sublime’ ─ JESSICA STANLEY, author of CONSIDER YOURSELF KISSED

‘Took me back to the way I felt when reading Normal People’ Chrissy Ryan, Stylist

Anyway, order it now and you’ll have a fun surprise arriving in the post in (checks watch) three months’ time.

Until then, I’m going to think about Frida as little as possible. It’s grey and wet outside, just like when I started writing this novel three Januaries ago. And I just got my library card renewed. If you need me, I’ll be working on the next thing.