A powerful and poetic novel from the multi-award-winning author of Tangleweed and Brine


Ces longs to be a tattoo artist and embroider skin with beautiful images. But for now she’s just trying to reach adulthood without falling apart.


Powerful, poetic and disturbing, Needlework is a girl’s meditation on her efforts to maintain her bodily and spiritual integrity in the face of abuse, violation and neglect.


‘Reading Needlework is similar to getting your first tattoo – it’s searing, often painful, but it is an experience you’ll never forget.’ – Louise O’Neill, author of The Surface Breaks and Asking For It


‘Needlework is a powerful novel that deserves to be read.’ – Sarah Crossan, author of One and We Come Apart


‘I loved Deirdre Sullivan’s Needlework, a novel that is just as sharp and precise as its title suggests.’ – Doireann Ní Ghríofa, poet


‘A modern, broken fairy tale that gets under your skin.’ – Tara Flynn, author and comedian