Author: Sarah Gilmartin
Genres: Literary Fiction
A glance between them can still conjure their younger selves: dancing beneath pulsing lights, the sharp taste of salt after swims in Dublin Bay.
Two decades on, life feels smaller. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, cared for by his wife Rachel. Across town, Stevie and Ben's relationship has settled into weary routine.
Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter's Betrayal. As rehearsals unfold, the play's shifting allegiances seep into reality, reviving old jealousies and awakening sudden longings, as each must reckon with how far they're willing to go in pursuit of desire.
Wry, sexy and deftly observed, Little Vanities is a novel about the dangerous thrill of stepping outside the roles we've been given - and the distance between the lives we imagine and the ones we live.
“Gilmartin is a natural writer: she gives us terrific, complex characters and strong themes, in a prose that is fluent and charged with insight.”
- Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren“A really wonderful storyteller.”
- Joseph O’Connor, author of Star of the Sea“Gilmartin has a forensic eye for the little moments and mumbled asides. . . She writes sharply and cleanly but always with a degree of compassion.”
- Jan Carson, author of The Raptures
Author: Sarah Gilmartin
Genres: Literary Fiction
A glance between them can still conjure their younger selves: dancing beneath pulsing lights, the sharp taste of salt after swims in Dublin Bay.
Two decades on, life feels smaller. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, cared for by his wife Rachel. Across town, Stevie and Ben's relationship has settled into weary routine.
Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter's Betrayal. As rehearsals unfold, the play's shifting allegiances seep into reality, reviving old jealousies and awakening sudden longings, as each must reckon with how far they're willing to go in pursuit of desire.
Wry, sexy and deftly observed, Little Vanities is a novel about the dangerous thrill of stepping outside the roles we've been given - and the distance between the lives we imagine and the ones we live.
“Gilmartin is a natural writer: she gives us terrific, complex characters and strong themes, in a prose that is fluent and charged with insight.”
- Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren“A really wonderful storyteller.”
- Joseph O’Connor, author of Star of the Sea“Gilmartin has a forensic eye for the little moments and mumbled asides. . . She writes sharply and cleanly but always with a degree of compassion.”
- Jan Carson, author of The Raptures
Pushkin Press
May 21st, 2026
