Little Vanities

TWO COUPLES, TWENTY YEARS AND AN UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF LOVE, SECRETS AND BETRAYAL.

'Wonderfully authentic, electrifying - there are dramas within dramas here and the unravelling is exhilarating when it comes' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

'You will not be able to stop reading this story of the deepest of betrayals' Emilie Pine, author of Ruth & Pen

'A natural writer' Anne Enright, author of The Wren, The Wren

Dylan, Stevie and Ben have been inseparable since their days at Trinity, when everything seemed possible. A glance between them can still conjure their younger selves: dancing beneath pulsing lights, the sharp taste of salt after swims in Dublin Bay.

Two decades on, life feels smaller. Dylan, once a rugby star, is stranded on the sofa, cared for by his wife Rachel. Across town, Stevie and Ben's relationship has settled into weary routine. Then, after countless auditions, Ben lands a role in Pinter's Betrayal. As rehearsals unfold, the play's shifting allegiances seep into reality, reviving old jealousies and awakening sudden longings, as each must reckon with how far they're willing to go in pursuit of desire.

Wry, sexy and deftly observed, Little Vanities is a novel about the dangerous thrill of stepping outside the roles we've been given - and the distance between the lives we imagine and the ones we live.



Sarah Gilmartin's short stories have been published in The Dublin Review, The Tangerine and The Stinging Fly. She won the Máirtín Crawford Short Story Award in 2020. Her novels Dinner Party: A Tragedy (2021), Service (2023) and the forthcoming Little Vanities (2026) are published by ONE. She was the 2025 Arts Council Writer-in-Residence at Dublin City University.