Claire Gleeson penned one of the most devastating novels of 2025

There's one book that I haven't been able to stop thinking about this year, and that's Show Me Where It Hurts by Claire Gleeson.

I read her debut novel in the springtime, and the devastating story has haunted me ever since.

This is a harrowing book that will break your heart, but it's one you'll regret not reading.

It follows Rachel, who has to come to terms with the unthinkable when her husband kills himself and their two children when he runs their family car off the road.

The novel asks the reader if you can survive the unsurvivable.

Show Me Where It Hurts is one story that you'll never forget about, even months after reading it. It is a truly heartbreaking book filled with raw emotion and a plot that will remain in your mind, but one that'll have the most profound impact on you.

This is a novel that changes the reader.

We recently caught up with author (and doctor) Claire Gleeson about her An Post Book Awards nomination.

The author said it's an honour to be nominated in the Best Newcomer category.

"I’m thrilled. It’s been such an exciting year, with the publication of Show Me Where It Hurts, which was the fulfilment of such a long-held dream. So to be nominated for an Irish Book Award is absolutely the icing on the cake and feels really special."

Gleeson hopes Irish readers will gain one vital lesson when they read her debut novel.

"I think reading fiction in general has an enormous capacity to increase our understanding of, and our empathy with, the people around us. So if my book manages to do that, even to some small degree, I’ll be very happy."

The synopsis reads:

‘How do you survive the unsurvivable? Rachel lives with her husband Tom and their two children: it’s the comfortable family life she always thought she’d have. All of that changes in an instant – when Tom runs the family car off the road, seeking to end his own life and take his wife and children with him.

‘Rachel is left to pore over the wreckage to try and understand what happened. She has to find a way to go on living afterwards.

‘What emerges is a snapshot of what it’s like to live alongside someone who is suffering, how you keep yourself afloat when the person you love is drowning.'

This is a book about how you survive irreparable loss.

Buy Show Me Where It Hurts here.

Buy the Kindle version here.

Claire Gleeson has been nominated in the Newcomer of the Year category in the 2025 An Post Irish Book Awards.