The Carnival at Bray

The Carnival at Bray is a young adult novel written by American author Jessie Ann Foley. In 2015, it received an Honor Book distinction as a finalist for the American Library Association’s Michael L. Printz Award, which recognizes literary merit. That same year, the ALA’s young adult division selected it as one of the ten “Best Fiction for Young Adults” and also shortlisted it for the William C. Morris Award, given to debut young adult novels. The manuscript had already won several contests, including the Chicago Reader annual fiction contest. It was published after winning a submission contest for Elephant Rock Books, and it became the first young adult title released by that small independent press.

The story follows Maggie, a teenager from Chicago who moves to Bray, a town in County Wicklow, Ireland, just south of Dublin. Her relationship with her mother is strained. After separating from Maggie’s father years ago, her mother had a series of short relationships before recently marrying an Irishman. The novel tracks Maggie’s struggle to fit in at an Irish school and navigate social life, her discovery of a surrogate grandfather, the death of a beloved but troubled uncle, and her escapes from home to Dublin and Rome—all tied to her passion for the band Nirvana. These threads lead to two major crises.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a starred review, noting that the narrative “subtly and carefully interweaves peer and family drama...with the highs and lows of the grunge music scene, from the transformative glory of a Nirvana concert to the outpouring of grief around the death of Kurt Cobain.” The Chicago Reader included *The Carnival at Bray* on its list of favorite books of 2014, calling it “a lovely coming-of-age story set on the northwest side and in Dublin, which got its start five years ago as the winner of our annual fiction contest.” It was also a finalist for the 2015 Chicago Writers Association Traditional Fiction Book of the Year.

In 2022, the novel was among 52 books banned by the Alpine School District under Utah law H.B.