NOVEMBER 2009
March 2007 Brandon Publishing
Baby Zero, is a child of our times: Caught between the fundamentalism of the East and the commercialism of the West. In a far-off land, everytime the regime changes they turn the year back to zero, as if to begin history again. Each girl in this family is born in the year zero, a time of turmoil. They are scattered across the globe, refugees in Ireland and the U.S. – but when one returns home she finds herself imprisioned.
FOR ALL UPCOMING EVENTS SEE SIDEBAR UNDER PAGES ON THIS SITE
New review of Baby Zero and interview with author on laurahird.com
Reading of Baby Zero by Emer Martin
Reviews of Baby Zero
What a incendiary, thought-provoking novel this is. It examines how women and children are crushed between the twin oppressions of eastern fundamentalism and western consumerism. And it also, like a bleak but
spiritual and haunting ballad, moves us and makes us care. – Irvine Welsh
“In a world awash with the sort of low-grade, formulaic fiction that publishers think women want, Emer Martin is a beacon of hope…. If there is any justice in the world her latest novel, Baby Zero, will see her break through to the major league of literary writers and cement her reputation as one of the most exciting voices to emerge from this country in the last decade…. A prophetic and deeply moving work.”Books Ireland, Feb 2007
“A masterpiece” – Kevin Williamson.
“Raven-haired writer Emer Martin is giving a lunchtime reading from her fabulous new novel, Baby Zero. Emer Martin is a brilliant writer, very much the real deal. She tells me that every single Irish review of her new book has made passing reference to Cecelia Ahern. Weird, given that Emer is to chick-lit what Shane MacGowan is to sobriety.” – Olaf Tyaransen, Evening Herald.
This, her third [novel], explores the uncertainties of the post-9/11 world, addressing the conflict between Islam and the West and the problems of immigration and assimilation through the “river within a river” that is Marguerite’s story…
Indeed Martin’s own situation – as an Irish woman married to an Iranian man – makes her uniquely placed to address such fraught issues, and this insight elevates Marguerite’s tale into a subtle exploration of the role of history and memory in the construction of identity: “You know you’re in trouble when the Iranians think you treat women badly.”
Martin delights in subverting the glib stereotypes of East and West and rejects traditional markers of nationality, identity and ethnicity in favour of a focus on individuals and the similarities between them. Viewed from this perspective, contemporary tensions are nothing more than “the same Cowboy and Indian story over and over again in different costumes, in different locations”. Baby Zero is both a convincing tale and a timely warning.
The Irish Times 24 February 2007
A riveting page-turner. A compelling satire on the clash of civilisations, the success of this story lies in the telling. Painted in large letters on a wall in the centre of Dublin, someone has taken the trouble to proclaim “Never forgive, never forget” not too far away, another, in even larger letters reads “Love Life”. If these slogans represent the writing on the wall of a new, multicultural Ireland, then Emer Martin’s Baby Zero offers rare insight into what they might mean.
Brenda McNally, Sunday Tribune www.tribune.ie/…/Books&id=62118&SUBCAT=Tribune/
“[Baby Zero] is cogent and urgent in depicting migration and dislocation as the predominant narrative of 21st-century history. Her characters are piquant and memorable; the tale is also very funny in
its portrait of Leila’s monstrous mother, Farah…[Martin's] portrait of
a world defined by the collapse of all notions of community
contains lasting strength and beauty”
Claire Alfree, Metro (London)
Sometimes critics say a novel’s plot is great but the writing isn’t so good, or that the writing is great yet the plot is up-the-left. But this is the first time, I’m sure, that I haven’t been able to break those two things apart. There’s no light between them. They’re equally extraordinary, equally driving the momentum. Baby Zero is a literary
unit so flush, confident and unique that it should win a big fat prize, and I suspect it will. It’s as sharp and sore and dizzying as a bullet wound, and will probably stay with you for just as long.
Verbal, Belfast Telegraph http://www.verbalartscentre.co.uk/verbalmagazine/pdfs/verbal_02_web.pdf
This is an unflinching tale of extreme oppression. In essence, this novel examines how women and children are trapped and often destroyed by the oppression of eastern fundamentalism and western consumerism “ and how men seem to come out bestâ
Irish Examiner
An absorbing account of how a family scattered across the world manages to survive through its shared history and heritage.
Irish Mail on Sunday
For information on Emer’s other books go to www.banshee.info
PUBLICATIONS
Breakfast in Babylon, A novel published in Ireland and UK in 1995 by Wolfhound Press. Published in 1997 in the U.S.A. by Houghton Mifflin.
More Bread or I’ll Appear, A novel published in the U.S.A. in 1999 by Houghton Mifflin. Published in England in 2000 by Alison & Busby.
Translated into Dutch in 2001 by Nich Von Ditmar.
Teeth Shall be Provided, A novella published in the UK and Ireland in 1998 as part of an anthology entitled Rover’s Return by Cannongate Press.
The Pooka, A short story published in 1999 in the UK and Ireland as part of an anthology entitled Shenanigans by Sceptre Press.
A Sacrificial Shoe, A short story published in 1999 in the UK and Ireland as part of an anthology entitled Fortune Hotel by Penguin Press