He Is Mine and I Have No Other

‘I was frightened of him in a way – of his grief, his loneliness – for he looked like the loneliest person on earth just then . . . the type of boy who wondered about things, as I did, who broke his heart wondering about things . . .’In 1990s-small-town Ireland, amid the sweaty school discos and first fumblings of adolescence, fifteen-year-old Lani Devine falls in love with Leon Brady, whose mother is buried in the cemetery next to Lani’s house.Lani is haunted by the stories of thirty-five orphaned girls, buried in an unmarked grave near Leon’s mother. As the love story unfolds, and then unravels, it becomes clear that Leon too is haunted – by a brutal family tragedy that has left scars much more than skin-deep.He Is Mine and I Have No Other is a captivating, eerie and atmospheric novel about the obsessive power of first love, about the claustrophobia a tight-knit family and community can cause, and about buried secrets and the havoc they wreak.

Reviews of He Is Mine and I Have No Other

I adored He is Mine and I Have No Other . . . Amazing, heartbreaking, brilliantly done — DONAL RYAN, author of THE SPINNING HEART and ALL WE SHALL KNOW I devoured He Is Mine and I Have No Other in a day, immediately caught up in O'Connor's vividly realised world. The intensity of relationships and shifting loyalties is brilliantly captured as the teenage protagonist, Lani Devine, wrestles with family life, friendship and first love. O'Connor perfectly evokes the passion, uncertainties and awkward misunderstandings of teen love. He Is Mine and I Have No Other is a great achievement and my only complaint is that I wanted more! — EVER DUNDAS, author of GOBLIN, winner of the Saltire First Book Award 2017 Evocative of Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding and Maura Laverty's glorious, long out of print, Never No More, Rebecca O'Connor's debut novel is vivid, authentic and compelling and may be the truest depiction of Irish rural girlhood since Edna O'Brien's Girl With Green Eyes. For that it is, and a lot more besides. What a treat it is to be introduced to such a genuine, compassionately humorous and profoundly tender voice — PATRICK McCABE, Booker-shortlisted author of BREAKFAST ON PLUTO and THE BUTCHER BOY A haunting novel that cuts right into the delicate and dangerous world of the adolescent. Sometimes frightening, often funny, but never a word less than a true work of art — CHRISTINE DWYER HICKEY, author of TATTY and THE COLD EYE OF HEAVEN He Is Mine and I Have No Other takes the reader on a journey through a teenage girl's heart at a time when she feels all the world's drama is centred there, while her life's biggest challenge is to learn how to recognise the pain of others. O'Connor delivers a story that is both heartfelt and daring — SJON, author of THE BLUE FOX and MOONSTONE