Other Houses
Paddy O'Reilly"Paddy O’Reilly is a gem of a writer. Her work manages to be both funny and sad and it’ll stay with you long after you turn the last page." - Michael Williams, Qantas Magazine
Lily and Janks are determined that their daughter Jewelee will have a different life. She'll have a career, not a dead-end job. She'll have savings, not debt. But precarious lives are easily upended. One wrong move throws the family into a situation in which the lines between right and wrong, hope and disappointment, are blurred.
"Other Houses is frequently funny, particularly in moments where Shannon and Lily are able to construct lavish inner lives for their clients (the spoilt rich children who trash their parents’ house; the accountant who probably does dodgy work for the mob); and it is these moments of giving power back to otherwise invisible cleaning women that the novel really shines." - The AU Review
Other Houses is a masterful and tender story about people who live from payday to payday. Acutely observed and lyrical, Paddy O'Reilly's novel paints a haunting picture of class, aspiration and the boundaries we will cross for love.