SHIBBY MAGEE An Irish Tragicomedy
• Top 50 bestseller in Contemporary British & Irish Literature
• #1 New Release in Sibling Relationships
• Featured in Publishers Weekly’s Monthly Spotlight
A vanished mother. A fractured family. A lifetime of choosing the wrong men.
When their bold, brassy mother vanishes into Ireland’s Traveller community, Shibby Magee and her twin sister, Dorah, are left behind in a family already cracking at the seams.
Under the iron rule of their rigidly bigoted grandmother, the girls grow up on opposite tracks: Dorah, defiant
and arrogant; Shibby, bruised and unmoored.
As an adult, desperate for love, Shibby is drawn to men who abuse or discard her, caught in patterns she can’t yet see. She finds a measure of stability in the chaos of a restaurant kitchen—but a question persists:
is her future in the settled world, or on the open road to God only knows where?
With the steadfast support of Alice Duffy, a housekeeper turned surrogate mother; Moochie de Barra, a stand-in for an emotionally absent father; and Kitty Dooley, who embodies the fierce pride and harsh
realities of Traveller life—Shibby begins to confront hard truths about cultural identity, family, and what it will take to find where she truly belongs.
Rich with texture and lyrical rhythm, this novel traces how early abandonment echoes into midlife, revealing what endures, what shifts, and how patterns repeat until the cycle finally breaks.
In the tradition of Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, and Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island, Shibby Magee is a warm yet incisive portrait of a woman shaped by loss, grief, and social prejudice as she struggles toward dignity, love, and self-possession.
Praise for Shibby Magee
"Carrie Kabak follows the indelible, indefatigable Shibby Magee during two crucial years in her life, one in girlhood and then another at midlife womanhood, as she struggles against prejudice, cruelty, and abandonment in her search to find her true place in an increasingly confounding world, be it in a bustling restaurant or on the road as an Irish Traveller—in an extraordinary, wily community I’d never heard of before and was delighted to encounter. Warm, wise, with dashes of wit, Kabak’s novel is just magnificent."
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You, With or Without You, and Days of Wonder
"With its brilliant sense of time, place, and setting, and its depiction of prejudiced small-town attitudes towards the Traveller community and homosexuality, this is a novel examining the real meaning of family and love. Lyrical, well observed, and darkly funny, it explores the issues of cultural identity, abandonment, and self acceptance. It is guaranteed to make you laugh and cry and will definitely warm your heart. Highly recommended—especially if you've enjoyed books by Tish Delaney, Fiona Scarlett, and Donal Ryan.
—Helen Towers, Borderlines Carlisle Book Festival programmer
"In this captivating and insightful novel, Carrie Kabak introduces the unforgettable Shibby Magee, who navigates adulthood in search of love and stability while grappling with the enduring shadows of childhood abandonment. Filled with multi-dimensional characters and evocative imagery, this is a heartfelt and poignant story that lingers long after the final page."
—Holly Kennedy, Edgar Award Nominee and Giller Prize Longlisted author of The Sideways Life of Denny Voss
