Novelist Louise O’Neill: no stranger to tackling ‘knife-edge’ topics in her work. Picture: Anna Groniecka
When I meet Louise O’Neill in the Fitzwilliam Hotel in Dublin, she has just ordered a sparkling water with a slice of lime. It is, by her measure, a very boujee choice, not unlike something the central character of her latest book, Idol, might ask for. Samantha Miller, her influencer-slash-wellness-guru protagonist, is in some ways like O’Neill. She’s successful, charming, driven. She comes from a small town in New England,...