Edel Coffey: I am thrilled - but part of me can’t believe it

As best-selling author Edel Coffey begins a new column for Weekend, she tells Jen Stevens about writing from a place of honesty, vulnerability and connection

Edel Coffey: bestselling author now joins the Irish Examiner as a columnist. Photo: Ray Ryan

It’s been an intense couple of weeks for Edel Coffey. Her debut novel Breaking Point went straight to number-one, she’s been on a whirlwind tour of the country doing press interviews, signings and visiting bookshops where her book was invariably in pride of place in the window.

It’s the type of runaway success that anyone writing a book dreams of. And while Edel is thrilled, she’s also still in shock and very funny about how she deals with everything that has happened.

“I just don’t believe it. I know I have to stop thinking about it like this, but I keep thinking that somebody is going to tell me it’s a mistake or they’re going to say, ‘Actually, yes. We need that money back’. Which is why I didn’t spend any of it for a year. Not a single penny. I just put it away in my daughter’s bank account where I couldn’t touch it.

“It’s a really damaging way to think. Rationally, I’m aware of that, that I should be celebrating, I should be enjoying the moment and I should be really thrilled. I am thrilled, of course, but there’s just part of me that can’t believe it. Big dreams are supposed to remain dreams unfulfilled,” Edel laughs at herself.

“That’s a combination of very stark Irishness and a woman who just missed out on the millennial mindset there. It’s all a bit too much for me right now.”

Edel signed with legendary Irish literary agent, Marianne Gunn O’Connor, in January of 2020 — something she describes as almost the most exciting part of the process. When Marianne saw potential in her book it gave Edel the boost of confidence she needed.

Signing with a literary agent gave Edel Coffey a confidence boost. Photo: Ray Ryan

“What I hoped would happen was that I would get a book deal and get it published in Ireland. I never thought it would get a book deal in the UK. I really just wanted to get it published and to not make a show of myself.

“I would describe myself as a catastrophist. I have to imagine the very worst thing that could happen, I think it’s a coping mechanism. If I know exactly what the worst outcome is I can then calm down because I know what the worst possible thing is. I do it in every situation. It’s almost like a way of controlling the unknown because I guess I fear the unknown in a way.”

Making a show of herself was never going to happen, Breaking Point was acquired by Darcy Nicholson the editorial director at Sphere in September 2020 after one of those very exciting multi-publisher auctions you hear about happening.

Edel got a two-book deal and had almost finished her second book before Breaking Point was released. Being close to completion must have been a relief when I imagine the huge success of your debut could leave you with extreme writer’s block.

“The second one is due in a month which is exciting. It’s going fine. It hasn’t gone fine last month or two, obviously, because I’ve been so busy with stuff related to Breaking Point, but I was determined to get the second book finished before the first one came out. That was for two reasons; either people wouldn’t like it and my confidence would be really knocked and I’d find it incredibly hard to finish a book or people would like it, as they have done, and I’d be paralysed by the fact that people like it. Thankfully, I’m in the phase of it now where it’s done to the extent that I am not sitting there going, ‘How can I make this book the same as Breaking Point?’. People have more than liked it. Breaking Point has hit a nerve with many women who have been overwhelmed with life over the course of the last two years.

“A guy that interviewed me the other day invented a genre for my book, he called it impact fiction. I like it. My publisher calls it literary crossover book club fiction and I’m happy with that too. I think what I’m always trying to do is to understand how we live.

“The new book is a story trying to understand certain power structures in our world. I’m really interested in class, in access to power and the imbalance that exists and then persists. Again, that sounds very serious and very worthy. I think it’s the same as Breaking Point, if you describe it as this book about burnout and how we live and how difficult it is, it sounds serious, but I’m hoping that this new book will also be a story that you want to keep reading as well. It’s being written in the same way because my life hasn’t changed. It’s still done in 20-minute bursts.”

Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

Next on Edel’s list is joining the Irish Examiner as a columnist.

“What I really like to do as a columnist, and the columns I’ve written that have really struck a chord in the past, are ones that show a sense of vulnerability and I think that’s so important for just connecting with people.

“I’ll write a column, it will be published, and people will say, ‘thank you for writing this incredibly honest piece’ and I’ll go, ‘oh, my God, I should tell my husband about this column’, or ‘I’ve embarrassed somebody again’, but actually what they’re saying is that you’ve been honest and it’s a surprising thing. I really feel that honesty is so incredibly important just for humanising us all again.

“I wrote a column about my mum dying, and about really missing her, even though I’m a full-grown adult. There are situations where I would hear this voice in my head saying, ‘I wish my mum was here reading this’. Or ‘if my mom was here, this would all be fine. She would manage the situation. It would all be perfect’.

“I wrote that column and my God, the response from people in their 40s, their 30s, their 50s, their 60s, people in their 70s saying, ‘my mom’s 96, and I still have her. I can’t believe I still have her’.

“The thing that struck me about that column was, why would it be shameful to say, ‘I miss my mum’ even though you’re an adult?

“That’s what I’m interested in as a columnist, is just connecting with people and their lives and saying, ‘Look, we’re all pretty much the same. We all have the same problems. We all have the same basic feelings. If we talk to each other, and we tell each other the truth, and if we’re maybe not afraid to expose ourselves a little bit even, everyone’s life is better then’. Isn’t it?”

In the midst of everything Edel has going on I wonder if she has managed to celebrate her phenomenal success yet or if she’s still ‘waiting to be found out’.

“I like to worry; I like to catastrophise. I like to say, ’that Champagne is for a good day, that’s for when something really good happens’. I don’t know what that is.”

She’s laughing but I’ve a feeling there’s a bottle in the fridge she’s scared to open.

“I am going to have a celebration this weekend actually.

“I’ve a friend visiting, and she’s booked us into this phenomenal sounding Champagne-tasting in the G Hotel. There will be more than one type of Champagne and more than one glass of Champagne.

“I didn’t really celebrate because of the pandemic. My mum died during the pandemic, and I got a book deal during the pandemic.

“I just felt like I needed to shut down my feelings. I was watching the news, and the images were so horrific, I just felt like, ‘Why would you celebrate something as ridiculous as getting a book published when this stuff is going on in the world?’ Maybe I was really afraid to do that, because I felt like there was too much bad stuff happening. I know that it’s all relative. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m not incredibly grateful. I think I’m frightened that my dream has come true, and I don’t know what to do now.”