The Wildelings

A vivid and compulsive story of obsession, control and guilt, set in Nineties Dublin – perfect for fans of dark academia

“I was hooked from the very start”

— Rachel Joyce, best-selling author

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“Lisa Harding’s third novel, The Wildelings, arrives to fill the Secret History-shaped hole in your lives… Gothic and gloriously entertaining”

— Alex Preston. The Guardian

“Dark, blistering and full of theatrics... An electric exploration of control, guilt, and one young woman’s fight to free herself. I was hooked from the very start”

— Rachel Joyce, best-selling author

“I was gripped by this dark and thrilling fable - Harding is the new Donna Tartt.”

— Dominic West, Award winning Actor

“The real stagecraft lies in Harding’s ability to excavate the still beating heart of a shared past and bonds beneath those brutalities. Riveting ,addictive and, ultimately, beautifully human”

— Una Mannion, Best-selling author

“In the striking latest from Harding... (she) crafts complex characters and explores the messy contours of a female friendship.... It’s a bracing tale.”

— Publishers Weekly

“A searing exploration into our deepest desires and insecurities…I adored it.”

— Heather Darwent, Sunday Times Best-selling author

“Lisa Harding ( Bright Burning Things, Cloud Girls) will haunt readers with the psychological drama of The Wildelings, a compulsively readable novel… Shocking, electric, impossible to turn from…Harding gives Jessica a self-excoriating, incisive and bitter first-person voice…(She) offers pulsing intensity, gut-wrenching emotional upheaval and high drama in every sense.”

— Shelf Awareness

“Obsession, possessiveness, coercion, malice, spite, insecurity, frailty, vulnerability; lurking unease and the wax and wane of tenuous friendship …As unsettling as it is addictive”

— Alan McMonagle, Award-winning author

“Irish novelist Harding’s incisive character studies and sharp descriptions of manipulation and social pressures make her writing feel alive.”

— Booklist

“The Wildlelings is addictively entertaining”

— Bookreporter

About the Author

Lisa Harding is a former actress, playwright and novelist. Her first novel Harvesting won the Kate O’Brien Award and was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award and the Kerry Group Prize.