The Party in the Woods

The Party in the Woods author Fiona McPhillips in conversation with Cara Black In this conversation, Irish journalist, screenwriter, and author Fiona McPhillips will join New York Times bestselling author Cara Black to discuss the journey behind McPhillips’ sophomore novel, The Party in the Woods. Exporing gender inequality, class divides, motherhood, marriage, adult friendships, and power, McPhillips and Black will examine the Irish rave scene of the early 2000s and its lasting impact on Irish culture. Their conversation will also address what it means to outgrow decades-old relationships, the consequences of sacrificing career ambitions for domesticity, and how the grief of those losses can emerge and resurface over time. Their discussion will also offer insight into how McPhillips threads the needle between research into Ireland’s historical class barriers and ongoing housing crisis and her own experience as an Irish-born rave DJ. By exploring how these influences inform the novel’s characters and their circumstances, McPhillips will illuminate the complexities of their lives on the page and the very real, sometimes dire realities they face. Fiona McPhillips is an Irish journalist, author and screenwriter, and an editor at The Forge literary magazine. Fiona's debut novel, When We Were Silent, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, runner-up for the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger and named as one of the Irish Times' crime books of the year. The Party in the Woods is her second novel. Cara Black is the author of twenty-one books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc Paris based series as well as the WWII thrillers Three Hours in Paris and Night Flight to Paris and Huguette, historical fiction. She has won the Médaille de la Ville de Paris and the Médaille d’Or du Rayonnement Culturel.