Book Launch: Barren by Byddi Lee
Info
Date:
May 14, 2025
Time:
6.30pm - 8.30pm
Location:
Irish Writers Centre
Price:
Free (booking required)
Book Launch: Barren by Byddi Lee
Wednesday 14 May 2025
6.30pm – 8.30pm
Irish Writers Centre, Dublin
Fiona O’Rourke will be in conversation with Byddi Lee discussing
the themes of baby loss, infertility and climate change as presented in Barren.
BARREN
In time, we are never alone.
Two grieving women are connected across time when the forces of nature activate a magical bronze axe they both possess, opening a portal through which they view each other’s worlds. When it becomes clear they both need saving, a way must be found to heal the calamities in both their worlds – before time runs out.
***
In present day California, pregnant Irish emigrant Aisling looks forward to becoming a mother. A sudden miscarriage leaves her devastated, but her unborn daughter’s spirit chooses to stay with her offering unheard comfort.
In Neolithic Ireland, huntress Zosime worries another lost pregnancy will diminish her standing in the tribe. When a comet strikes, bringing plague and famine, Zosime embarks on an odyssey to find a way to save her tribe – taking her magical bronze axe which contains the history of her tribe.
The axe is also in Aisling’s possession, for both women are from Armagh, separated by thousands of years. When an earthquake activates its powers – suddenly Aisling can see through time and space. Connected to her unborn daughter’s spirit and the axe, somehow she can view Zosime’s desperate plight. However, the connection means her daughter is trapped between worlds, fading and powerless.
Unless Aisling can trust her new powers and discover the secrets of the axe, her daughter’s spirit, Zosime, and the woman’s tribe, might be lost forever.
Byddi Lee is the author of Barren (Seanchai Books, 2025), Rejuvenation, a speculative fiction trilogy (first published by Castrum Press, 2020) and March to November (Seanchai Books, 2014). She has published flash fiction, short stories, and co-founded and manages Flash Fiction Armagh, shortlisted as Best Regular Spoken Word Night in the Saboteur Awards, and co-edited The Bramley – An Anthology of Flash Fiction Armagh, Volumes 1 and 2. Byddi also writes for stage and screen and is a member of BBC Writersroom Voices 23. She is an Arts Council Northern Ireland supported writer and holds professional membership at the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin and the Society of Authors, UK.
For more information, visit www.ByddiLee.com.
Access our building
Please note that the event will be held in-person at the Irish Writers Centre (19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1). For information on accessibility, please see the ‘venue’ section of the Irish Writers Centre website.
