There are two dark, dank and soul-destroying ‘clubs’ in this world that nobody wants to be a member of. These unenviable cohorts are those living the experience of domestic violence (aka victims/survivors) and those enduring homelessness. 

Individually these harsh and brutal situations are utterly unbearable. However, when domestic violence and homelessness occur to a person in tandem (as is often the case), the turbulent result is a headily combustive ‘wildfire’ that may or may not be put out in time, for those caught in the suffocating effects of these tragedies.

Throughout the world, domestic violence is frequently the terrible catalyst for homelessness for women and children (women are overwhelmingly the victims of domestic violence, from partners, in the world).

Such sobering truisms are expertly and tellingly examined in stellar Irish author, Roisin O’Donnell’s, superb debut novel, Nesting.

Taking place in the outwardly hip and happening city of Dublin, Ireland, from the spring of 2018 until the summer of 2019, the events of the novel are told from the point of view of our chief protagonist, thirty-six year old Ciara, wife to Ryan and mother (to four year old, Sophie, and two year old, Ella).

The family reside in the unassuming locale of Glasnevin, a suburb of Dublin.  To the outside world, Ciara is surely living the dream, and is living a highly enviable life. Ryan is handsome and has a good job in business. Sophie and Ella are happy and healthy. They may not own their home (they are renting), but they live in a nice area of town, and the girls happily attend their daycare, which is cheerily named “Happy Days”.

We only have to scratch below the surface of this quintessential Irish family (Ciara is actually from England, but her mother, Rhona is Irish), howver, and we see that the dream-like fairytale the family are living in is actually an undiluted Machiavellian nightmare.

Ryan can certainly lay on the charm and often tell Ciara he loves her and how wonderful she is. But Ryan (in fact a spoilt ‘mummy’s boy’) habitually psychologically (mentally and emotionally) abuses Ciara. Frequent gaslighting and coercive control occur in the home. Ryan the perpetrator, Ciara the victim.

This causes Ciara to doubt herself big time. However, unable to take it anymore, Ciara grabs the clothes off the washing line one spring day (while Ryan is in the shower), bundles the girls into the car and drives off. This time for good (Ciara has left Ryan in the past). Despite the escape from Ryan, Ciara and the girls’ troubles are far from over.

At first going to a bed and breakfast to spend the night and also sleeping in the car, Ciara comes to phone the Emergency Homeless Helpline, only to be told that “they are at capacity. There’s nothing for tonight. Their best bet is to register at the Central Placement Service…in the morning…..If she is stuck for tonight, she can present at the local garda (police) station.” Of this information given to her, Ciara thinks to herself “…you can’t do that. You can’t have the kids sleeping in a cell”.

After a humiliating interview at the Central Placement Service, Ciara and her girls are given a room (room 124) at the Hotel Eden (not as glamourous as it sounds). And so begins a long spiritually-corrosive time for this family of three, living a caged-in existence in the hotel. Unable to find a permanent home, (Ciara does not have a job at first, however later finds a casual job teaching English to foreigners) and on the social housing list, Ciara and her offspring can’t seem to catch a break.

House inspections to find a stable home always find Ciara on the back foot, as she doesn’t have the finances of other prospective tenants and she is a single mother (it is sad in this day and age that a single mother should be discriminated against when looking to rent a place but unfortunately this does happen).

There is nowhere to cook in the hotel room, so Ciara can’t give herself and her daughters nourishing food. There are, however, small slithers of light. Ciara makes friends in the hotel with Cathy, a woman who is homeless and living in the hotel with her children. The hotel rooms for the homeless are funded by the government.

Imagine having to live in a hotel room for months (maybe years), with no kitchen and if you have them, your children. It would be simply heartbreaking. No wonder those who are homeless frequently find themselves battling mental illness. People aren’t made to live in such conditions, and many unfortunately do (including in Australia where I live. In the 2021 Australian census, there were over 122 000 homeless Australians and 24 300 of those were in supported accommodation, including hotels).

Endlessly, day after day, Ciara phones the ‘housing people’ to see if she is on the list for social housing, and if anything has come up.

Ciara finds herself confiding to Cathy “I don’t know if I should have left. He didn’t cheat, or drink, or gamble. And it wasn’t physical. He didn’t hit me or anything”.

Cathy sarcastically replies “Your husband didn’t hit you? Well that was very (expletive) nice of him. Make sure you text and say thanks”.

When Ciara finds that she is pregnant (to Ryan, from before she left him), her life becomes even harder (and it was unbearably hard before that).

Will Ciara, Sophie and Ella ever get to leave the Hotel Eden, and find and be able to afford a house to rent? Rental prices are sky-high in Dublin, like in most capital cities in the Western world today.

What happens when Ryan tries to get back with Ciara? Will she weaken and allow him back in her life?

What happens when Ryan and Ciara take each other to court? Who will come off ‘second-best’?

Is there any possibility of romance in Ciara’s life, with all that she has going on? Who could capture her heart?

Ciara makes friends with the a cleaner in the Hotel Eden, a young Brazilian man named Diego. Ciara gives Diego helpful English lessons. Will he ever conquer this difficult (for foreigners) language?

Does Ciara ever have her baby, and is it okay?

Will Ciara, Sophie and Ella ever heal from their scars and wounds inflicted on them by Ryan and the whole substandard housing situation (for many) in Ireland?

Will Ciara ever get her dignity back?

Roisin has written a story full of formidable wisdom, intelligence and insight into the human psyche and condition (the good and the bad).

Roisin mentions in her acknowledgements that she found useful in writing Nesting the research paper of Dr Melanie Nowicki, on ‘The Hotelisation of the Housing Crisis’.

Roisin beautifully dedicates, in the acknowledgements section, the book “To every person sleeping in emergency accommodation tonight, in particular the 4, 027 children (in Ireland). To those in family hubs, hostels, hotels and refuges, and those sleeping in friends’ spare rooms and on sofas, hidden from official statistics. To anyone trapped in a place that does not feel like home, and to anyone who has ever been asked the question ‘why don’t you just leave?’ This book is for you”.

Bravo Roisin! This is a novel we all should be reading (no matter where we live, our circumstances, where on the socio-economic spectrum we fall, and whether we have been or are a victim of domestic violence or not). However, certain people may find the novel triggering if their life experiences are similar to, or have been similar to, Ciara’s, so that should be mentioned.

As well as being well written, Nesting is highly informative and educational on the hot-button issues of domestic violence and homelessness, which shouldn’t (yet do) lurk in the shadows (and sometimes out in the open) in society today (whilst also having been societal problems for centuries).

I got so much out of reading this book. I was transported to another place and situations so different from my lived experience. And isn’t that what we all want in a good book? To be taken to another world, to look inside someone’s life that we can have compassion on and inwardly barrack for?

I highly recommend Nesting. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and I can’t wait to see and read what Roisin writes next.