Megan Nolan's 'Kleine Schwächen' Reviewed as Crime Novel and Family Saga

Megan Nolan's second novel 'Kleine Schwächen' (Little Weaknesses) has been recommended as book of the week in Germany. The story begins in 1990 when a girl is found dead in a South London housing estate, and suspicion quickly falls on Lucy Green, an Irish immigrant from a broken home who was a playmate of the victim. The narrative, praised by Karl Ove Knausgård as an 'exceptional literary talent', shifts between a whodunit crime plot and a family saga. It follows Tom, a gossip reporter who attaches himself to Lucy's family, and explores the Greens' family dynamics across 1970s Ireland and London. Nolan, born in Ireland in 1990, uses the crime framework to delve into themes of British class society and anti-Irish everyday racism, but the novel's strength lies in its ambivalent characters driven by shame and contradictory decisions. The actual murderer is secondary to the portrayal of the family's self-destructive weaknesses rooted in precarious origins, manifesting in alcohol excess and resignation. The book made the list of best books in July 2026.