Trouble: A darkly funny true story of self-destruction (Paperback) - Marise Gaughan

A stunning literary memoir, full of smart, dark humour, from an exceptional young Irish writer and comedian.

'Spit-your-tea-out funny.' -Fern Brady

'Raw, brutal and life-affirming' -Sara Pascoe

'Addictive, exhilarating and raw' -Daisy Buchanan, author of Insatiable

'Graphic, explicit, visceral' -Irish Times

'Blistering' -Sunday Business Post

'Transcendent' -Irish Independent

Marise was nine when she first realised there was trouble, 14 when her Dad tried to end it all, and 23 when he finally succeeded.

In a turmoil of conflicting emotions she runs, leaving behind Dublin and her Catholic girlhood and fleeing to New York, where she gets into a messy relationship with an older comedian who she idolises and who tells her she's special - until she's not. With a trail of sex, self-destruction and a near miss with Scientology in her back pocket, eventually she finds herself in a California psych ward, a young woman imploding.

As she retells her unravelling from child to adult, Marise strips back her identity and her relationship with her father, layer by layer, until she finally starts to understand how to live with him, years after he has gone.

Written beautifully, with a caustic sense of humour and brutal honesty, Trouble is one of the most powerful coming-of-age memoirs in recent years.

About the Author

Marise Gaughan was born in Dublin in 1991, and began doing stand-up in the open mic nights of Los Angeles in 2016. Now living in London, she continues to perform in all the major UK and Irish clubs and festivals. Her award nominated debut show Drowning premiered at the Dublin Fringe festival in 2018 and was awarded the Women's Irish Network Arts Bursary. She presented a weekly radio segment on Ireland's lyric.fm during lockdown that The Irish Times called 'edgy, honest and funny.' This is her first book.