Wild Geese is the stunning debut novel from Irish author Soula Emmanuel which follows the daily life of Phoebe Forde, an Irish Trans woman living in Copenhagen. One day as Phoebe is plodding along in her newly curated life, her ex Grace appears on her doorstep and we watch the two as they meander and dance around what was, what is and what could have been.

There is something quite magical happening between the pages of Wild Geese that is in ways quite difficult to describe. With just over 240 pages this beautifully petite book manages to be poetic and profound yet somehow refreshingly gentle and simple. It is this magic that escapes from the pages in the form of Emmanuel’s lyrical and lustrous prose. I found myself happily lost among sumptuous passage after passage that I had to reread and highlight.
“The surest sign that pain has been fully felt is when nothing is taken seriously at all.”

This book isn’t just another story to follow, it is an in depth and unhurried character study which creates an introspective wistfulness and sense of catharsis. I often found myself melting away into the text in awe of its all-encompassing relatability. This paired with a gentle underlying Irish humour - "Life is the Brittas Bay car park and you’re always looking for the sea”, made for the kind of book I didn’t want to finish yet somehow found myself clinging to the last page far too quickly.

One of my top books of 2023, I could read Wild Geese again and again and never be bored.
I always say the books that I love the most take me the longest to review, so take from it what you will that I read Wild Geese in May 2023. I eagerly await to see what’s next for Soula and truly wish she receives the recognition she deserves.

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