Soula Is the Most Exciting New Voice in Irish Writing

Set within a tight, hour-by-hour structure over a fateful weekend, Wild Geese is an intense exploration of the limits of identity, particularly in the context of romantic relationships. Soula Emmanuel explores the compromises we must make to be loved and maintain this love as we inevitably grow and change.

“I am thirty years old and living in postscript already, not on the edge but over it, a happenstance life on a tranquil margin. It is a gatecrasher’s quiet. I cannot explain what a thrill it is just to be here”, from “Wild Geese” by Soula Emmanuel.

Having run away from her native island to transition privately in Scandinavia, Phoebe’s new life is small, quiet, and lonely, but ultimately, safe. “My routine is a jagged sinkhole. Most of it has fallen away, yet I still tend to the jagged edges, for want of something better, for want of something to want”. The social styles of Ireland and Scandinavia are wonderfully contrasted. Phoebe has traded community with occasional intrusiveness for peace and a sense of meaninglessness.

A Disruptive Ex-Girlfriend

However, all of this carefully constructed armour crashes down. This is when Grace, a pre-transition ex-girlfriend, tracks her down for one of those fabled ‘what does it all mean’ conversations of rom-com yore. Grace is approaching her thirtieth birthday and, with it, the proverbial crisis. She is wild and seemingly without a filter. But this chaos also works as a mask to prevent the world from seeing her insecurities and humiliating desire for something resembling a conventional life. 

Seeing Grace takes Phoebe back into her submissive romantic nature, “not merely in the palm of her hand but tucked behind a fingernail like fortunate dirt”. But by reinspecting this lost love, Phoebe has to reopen herself up to vulnerability after years of building herself a safely impenetrable shell. “I am like an ant that has inhaled a spore that is eating its brain. I have no choice but to climb to the top of the dandelion and wait to be devoured”.

The fact that Phoebe has transitioned since their last meeting gives her that sense of ready malleability. “I could be anything, really … I could make myself whatever shape and size is necessary. It’s no trouble. I have done it before”.  She can change herself to fit around Grace. “I was content to make room for her, to be a worthy and dutiful addendum to someone else’s life”. But being so willing to compromise oneself isn’t actually a foundation for a healthy partnership – as the pair begin to understand.

Thinking About Identity and Relationships

Phoebe’s strange relationship with her identity makes it difficult for her to exist full stop, let alone in relation to others. “Perhaps I am doomed to have sillier and sillier identity crises until I am dead: the one label that accepts no backchat. Paralysis by analysis begetting paralysis the old-fashioned way”. However, over her (second) time with Grace, she seems to find some peace within herself. “You are both more and less interesting than you think … Stop wanting to be someone else and resolve to be your own febrile self”.

The novel’s messy conclusion may be a detriment to some readers, but for me, it was the perfect way to conclude the unconcludable. How do we make a lasting peace with ourselves to be able to impose that self onto others – who are also battling that same question? No idea – but we have to try. 

“Well done … for turning this stupid little thing into a story with a moral”.

You can pick up your copy of Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel at Waterstones.