Devotions: ‘One of the finest short story writers at work today.’ Wendy Erskine Main Edition

Lucy Caldwell’s writing, which was already absorbing and sure-footed, is opening out in new directions ― TLS

The places, the people, the relations between them, the things they say and the way they say them, all seem utterly observed. There isn’t another way to put it. It’s stimulating, frightening, quietly passionate and somehow comforting too. Never wrenched or overwrought, always an oblique yet perfectly human mix. If you want a window to look at the world through, it’s here. ― GUARDIAN

Devotions, overall, is a heartfelt hymn to discovering spirituality amidst a life of stasis. The unifying strength of this collection is the superbly realised sense of epiphany for each protagonist ― BOOKS IRELAND

Poignant stories from a specialist in the form . . . One gets to the end of Devotions feeling that Caldwell has spent so much time in the ring, and understands the territory so well, that it would be a brave writer who would strap on the gloves to challenge her ― IRISH TIMES

Her touch is so light, her observations so perceptive, her dialogue chattering off the page, that she more than underscores her reputation as one of the best practitioners of the short-form craft . . . Each of Caldwell’s collections is a singular gem but read them together and something magical happens ― FINANCIAL TIMES

Lucy Caldwell makes other writers jealous; no one makes the short story look so effortless. These are stories which sing off the page, full to bursting with the small joys and sorrows of everyday life. Lucy Caldwell knows how to take a tiny moment and spin it into an epic. She never ever disappoints. — JAN CARSON

Memory and connection thread through Caldwell’s latest collection of short stories . . . One of the finest writers of short fiction working today, Caldwell is an expert at placing Russian dolls of memory, nostalgia and regret into the hearts and minds of her characters, to create skilfully unshowy tales that reveal the complex humanity of ‘everyday’ life ― MARIE CLAIRE

Lucy Caldwell puts her finger on that recess we can’t quite put our finger on, she gives voice to the tender stratum that comprises our secret selves. Devotions speaks to a fifth dimension – or is it a sixth or a seventh? – that of a collective human spirit, an emotional continuum. This collection is fascinating, exhilarating, devastating, comforting, essential, real, a blessing. — CLAIRE KILROY

The purest distillation of her talent. It offers a stunning look at the inner lives of women and girls in Belfast and beyond, capturing the precision of modern longing and the quiet moments of upheaval ― MIRROR

Powerful, compelling and richly crafted, these stories encompass the fullness of human experience and make for compulsive reading. Caldwell’s characters-pained beneath the surface-excavate layers of the past and various versions of the truth in order to survive the present. Deeply affecting and full of compassion, each story quietly reveals something of the strange workings of the human heart. — MARY COSTELLO

The range of interests in Lucy Caldwell’s luminous new collection is extraordinary, and yet the stories are profoundly intimate – I felt often that she was writing for me and only me. — TAHMIMA ANAM

I am in awe of Lucy Caldwell’s exquisite ability to parachute her readers right into another human mind, into their very thoughts and desires. In Devotions, the vividness of her vision carried me away again and again. This is literature to return to, both rich and compelling, remarkable stories that will be held beloved for years to come. — DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA

With Devotions, you are, without question, in the hands of one of the modern greats. Lucy Caldwell is a brilliant writer whose stories resonate long, long after they are read. Attuned to both the everyday and the cosmic, they actually remind me of life’s preciousness

— WENDY ERSKINE