The Gospel of Orla

Most anticipated in the IRISH TIMES, TORONTO STAR, and the BOOK CULTURE newsletter • INDIE NEXT LIST PICK • LIBRARY READS SELECTION • PERFECT FOR BOOK CLUBS • DEBUT NOVEL

“A consistently surprising, evocative, almost impossible to put down, and gloriously original work.” —Booklist

A stunning debut novel from the Northern Irish poet Eoghan Walls, The Gospel of Orla is the coming-of-age story of a young girl, Orla, and the man she meets who has an astonishing and unique ability.

It is also a road novel that takes us across the north of England after the two flee Orla’s village together. Here the mysteries of faith charge full bore into the vagaries of contemporary mores. A humorous, wise, deeply human and sometimes breathtaking work of lyrical fiction. 

“A melancholic, funny, and magical coming-of-age story, The Gospel of Orla is glorious, wise, and totally weird. I loved it.” —Annie Hartnett, author of Unlikely Animals

“Utterly convincing and fresh and original.” —Colm Tóibín, author of The Magician

“In his debut novel, poet Eoghan Walls imagines the intersection of the material and the mystic. . . . As the troubled teenager ricochets between circus illusion and divine touch, she and the reader are beckoned to ponder where magic ends and miracles begin.” —Kia Corthron, author of Moon and the Mars