Dubliner Tanya Sweeney has a lot to celebrate as we ease into 2026. Her debut novel, Esther is Now Following You, has arrived in bookshops accompanied by the kind of pre-publicity and literary merch (badges and tote bags) most budding authors can only fantasise about.
The novel is a pacy, darkly funny and original thriller about obsession and celebrity fandom. It landed her “the agent of my dreams” Marianne Gunn O’Connor, and what she describes as a “comfortable” six-figure advance for a two-book deal from Transworld.
When we meet in The Hoxton hotel in Dublin, Sweeney is full of good cheer and, understandably, the nerves that come with any debut. And there is another…