You & I

More about the book

Both a coming-of-age love story and a sharp look at changing Dublin, this is a brilliant debut from a talented new voice in Irish contemporary storytelling. Each September, thousands of students walk through the doors of University College and Trinity College, Dublin. This year, Olive and Tom will be among them. Eighteen-year-old Olive is fresh from the country, and her eyes are opened wide by the big-city goings on of her new friends. When she starts to be pursued by Tom, the scruffy maverick who's seduced half the girls she's met, she's adamant he's not for her. But when a tragedy befalls her family, it's Tom who proves her best friend -- until that is, she discovers his real motivations. Tom has never thought further than the next party, the next girl, the next drink. But now, with his own broken family about to cast him off and his social habits spinning out of control, he seems to have destroyed his relationship with Olive. What started out as a stupid dare metamorphoses into something much more serious. Set against the backdrop of youth on the brink of adulthood, and capturing the contrasts of the haves versus the have-nots, the worldly versus the innocent, Emily Gillmor Murphy's You and I is an assured debut that will transport readers straight to the rollercoaster experience of growing up and falling in love.