Delphine, long cast in the supporting role of politician’s wife and mother to five children, spends her life tending to others. It’s only after her husband’s sudden death that she begins to live on her own terms – sea-swimming, travelling and embracing long-overdue freedom.

When she dies unexpectedly on a trip to the Galápagos Islands, her daughter Julia is left to make sense of a life that was both ordinary and extraordinary. In the quiet, clinical language of the post-mortem report, she finds an unlikely path to healing. Piece by piece, she reconstructs her mother – not as the exhausted figure of her childhood, but as a vibrant, complex woman finally free to be herself.

Still is a stunning portrait of grief, transformation and the lasting power of love. A deeply moving tribute to a woman who died as she had always longed to live: in the middle of a great adventure.

Prizes

Short-listed for Irish Book Awards Biography of the Year 2025

On these meticulously written pages, the author’s life story mingles seamlessly with that of her mother, and ends with reflections on the nature of grief and the consolation of writing. Like many grief memoirs, a primary function of the work for the composer is not only to temper grief by giving it words but, perhaps more urgently, to continue the conversation with the beloved dead – and finally to let them go.

"A slim volume, it is replete with pearls of memory that frequently sparked deep emotion in this reader."

Review for previous work: 

‘Kelly’s talent is such that she is able to wring so much beauty, pathos and even humour from all this trauma.’

Review for previous work:

‘Ragged and terrifying, but it also achieves a rare grace.’ 

Review for previous work:

‘The freshest voice in Irish fiction since the wonderful early novels of Edna O’Brien. This is a future to watch.’ 

JULIA KELLY is an acclaimed Irish memoirist and novelist. Her previous books include Matchstick Man (2018), The Playground (2014) and With My Lazy Eye (2009), for which she was awarded an Irish Book Award and nominated for a Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award and Irish Book of the Decade.