Sweep the Cobwebs off the Sky debuts

Mary O’Donnell’s new novel is not really “debuting” this week in the strict sense — it was published on March 19, 2026 — but it is still very much in its arrival phase, with reviews, extracts, and live readings pushing it into wider view. The book is *Sweep the Cobwebs Off the Sky*, published by Époque Press. And the reason people are paying attention is pretty clear: it takes a very domestic setup — two sisters caring for their elderly mother — and turns it into a story about memory, abuse, ageing, and the way a house can seem to trap a family inside its own past. ### So what actually came out? The book is a 288-page work of literary fiction by Mary O’Donnell, one of the more established names in contemporary Irish writing. Époque Press lists the publication date as March 19, 2026, with the paperback carrying ISBN 9781068716256. That matters because the “news” here is less a surprise launch than the point where a new novel starts moving through the ecosystem — extracts, reviews, bookstore listings, and festival appearances. (indiepressnetwork.com) ### What is the novel about? The core setup is simple and heavy. Two sisters are at Kilnavarn House, looking after their infirm mother, and the return to that family home pulls buried memories back to the surface. RTÉ’s extract frames it as a story where the past keeps intruding on the present, while the James Joyce Centre description gets even more specific: the women are two daughters and their 93-year-old mother, and the return home awakens memories of childhood abuse. (indiepressnetwork.com) ### Why does the house matter so much? Because the house is not just scenery. O’Donnell seems to use Kilnavarn House almost like a pressure chamber — a place that stores old damage and keeps forcing the characters to relive it. One event listing even describes the house as haunted by a poltergeist, which sounds supernatural, but basically works as an outward sign of the protagonist’s inner distress. That gives the book a gothic edge without changing its real subject, which is family trauma. (rte.ie) ### Who is telling the story? Reviews identify Frankie as the narrator. She has been caring for her mother Elma, who has dementia, for 22 years by the time the novel opens, and she is waiting for her sister Tess to arrive from New York during the Covid-19 period. That detail is important because it shifts the book away from a simple family reckoning and into something more specific — care work, lockdown isolation, and the resentment that builds when old wounds meet present-day obligation. (jamesjoyce.ie) ### Why are reviewers locking onto it? Because it is doing a few hard things at once. It is a novel about ageing. It is a novel about abuse and memory. And it is also pandemic fiction — but not in the obvious “news event turned into plot” way. Reviews have focused on its candor, especially how it handles the emotional mess of caring for a parent who may also be tied to the worst parts of your childhood. That is a nasty knot, and O’Donnell seems to lean into it rather than smoothing it out. (booksirelandmagazine.com) ### Where does this sit in O’Donnell’s career? Pretty late, and that is part of the appeal. O’Donnell has been publishing since 1990 and is already known for novels, short stories, and poetry. Époque Press points to *The Light Makers* as her award-winning debut novel, and notes that her short-story collection *Walking Ghosts* came out in 2025. So this is not a breakout by a new writer — it is a veteran writer extending a long body of work into darker late-life territory. (booksirelandmagazine.com) ### Has it had a public rollout beyond reviews? Yes. RTÉ ran an extract on publication day, March 19. Then the James Joyce Centre hosted O’Donnell for a reading on April 11 as part of the Five Lamps Arts Festival. That kind of rollout is modest, but it is exactly how literary fiction often gains traction — first an excerpt, then critical attention, then live events, then word of mouth. (epoquepress.com) ### Bottom line? The real story is not that a random title appeared on a release list. It is that Mary O’Donnell has brought out a new novel that uses an ageing mother, two sisters, and one loaded family house to ask how much of the past can ever be cleared away — and how much still hangs in the air like cobwebs. (indiepressnetwork.com) (rte.ie)