Mouthing By Orla Mackey

Welcome to Ballyrowan. This sleepy corner of rural Ireland may seem tranquil, but scratch the surface and you’ll find a hotbed of gossip and intrigue – endless material for mouthing – and a town full of people only too happy to oblige in spreading the bad news. Narrated by several generations of villagers, ‘Mouthing’ traces the fortunes of one small community from the mid-20th century to the early 21st, in a series of highly confessional and darkly hilarious monologues. The good people of Ballyrowan delight in twisting the knife, in tormenting one another, in perfecting the art of schadenfreude. And, it becomes clear, none of them are entirely reliable witnesses.