Mary Morrissy interviewed Clare Hutton

Irish novelist Mary Morrisy talks about her new work, Penelope Unbound, a fictional imagining of what would have happened if Norah Barnacle, muse and wife of James Joyce, had not stuck around after Joyce got into trouble in Italy.

Joyce left Norah with their suitcases on their arrival in Trieste in 1904 while he went to find some money. He got into a fight with some sailors and was locked up. A penniless Norah hung around for a day and a night sat on the suitcases waiting for him. Morrisy’s novel asks what would have happened if she hadn’t waited for him. She gives Norah a new voice and a heartbreak and humanity of her own.
Morrisy is author of three previous novels, Mother of Pearl, The Pretender and The Rising of Bella Casey. She has won a Hennessy Award and a Lannan Foundation Award. Here she talks to Dr Clare Hutton, research and innovation director in English at Loughborough University and an expert in early 20th century Irish literature.

Part of the festival’s programme of Irish literature and culture.