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Academy Day
Paperback
General FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher: Emerald Harbour House
Published: Feb 2 2026
Pages: 268
Weight: 0.80
Height: 0.61 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In Galway, exam season isn't just a timetable-it's a pressure system.
Gráinne is the kind of teenager who can solve the problem and still feel like she's failing the moment. She carries panic in her ribs like a trapped bird, even while the world expects her to keep performing: school gates, training nights, assembly halls, noise, lights, eyes. And then the internet does what it always does-turns a young person into a headline.
But this is not a story about being fixed.
It's a story about being held.
Aunties who arrive like starlings and tape shins with steady hands. A family room that becomes a study sanctuary. Adults who take safeguarding seriously, who say consent out loud, who build quiet corners on purpose. A community learning-clumsily, tenderly-how to protect young people without making them smaller.
With sharp humour, fierce warmth, and the kind of lived-in Irish realism that hits you right in the chest, Acadamy Day is a love letter to the people who do the boring work that saves the day: the routines, the boundaries, the breath, the showing-up.
Because sometimes the bravest thing isn't winning.
It's staying.
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