When a dog finds a strange, alien antler in a reclaimed bog, the owner’s first thought is to keep it for himself. But when he realises the value of his find, he is drawn back to the rich peat to keep searching. It is not one stag skeleton that is buried there, but dozens – an ancient dying ground of the Great Irish Elk.
Other things have come out of the bog: prehistoric settlements, bronze cauldrons, ancient butter, iron weapons – and the body of a two-thousand-year-old female, mutilated and serene. Fifty years ago, a young archaeologist named her Belroe Woman, and dedicated his life to telling the story of her sacrificial death. While the Irish state and public treat the bog body as a national treasure, others must reckon with this otherworldly influence over their own lives.
Set across an ever-changing natural landscape, The Red Mouth – an béal rua – explores the deep time of the bog, where violence is soaked into the earth.
PRAISE FOR SHEILA ARMSTRONG:
'A major literary talent' Joseph O'Connor
'Writes complex and troubling stories with such unflinching graciousness' Jan Carson
'I am addicted to good sentences, and Sheila Armstrong is my dealer' Louise Nealon
'[Her] hypnotic prose has a haunting, lingering, dreamlike effect' Lisa Harding
'A fabulous writer ... Armstrong's curiosity in the "small" moments of people's lives is immersive and hypnotic' Megan Bradbury
The Red Mouth
By Sheila Arm
The new novel from a rising star in literary fiction, The Red Mouth is the story of two discoveries made fifty years apart - a human body and, later, animal remains - that force individuals and communities to confront what has laid dormant and to reckon with the past.
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Book Details
Imprint: Bloomsbury Circus | Pub date: July 2026 | Format: 216 x 135mm | Extent: 256
About the Author
Sheila Armstrong is a writer and editor from the north-west of Ireland. How To Gut A Fish, her first collection of short stories, was shortlisted for the Kate O'Brien Award and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Falling Animals, her debut novel, was chosen for BBC2's Between The Covers Book Club and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.
