‘Sunburn’ Captures The Heat Of First Loves And Summertime Yearning

There’s no denying that Ireland is having quite the cultural moment—Cillian Murphy’s Oscar win, Sally Rooney’s ever-expanding cinematic universe, Paul Mescal’s tiny shorts, and Ayo Edebiri in many ways. Queer Irish author Chloe Michelle Howarth is no exception to the current cultural Irish excellence. With her debut novel, Sunburn, Howarth has stolen sapphic hearts and solidified her spot in the sapphic literary canon. 

Two years after its explosive release in Europe, the coming-of-age novel is finally making its way to the U.S. on July 8. The story, set during a hot summer in ‘90s rural Ireland, follows Lucy as she navigates the ups and downs of her teenage years and the comp-het pushing her towards a local boy. She walks on a tightrope trying to balance her mother’s expectations, her town’s conservative customs, and, of course, her earth-shattering, unyielding obsession with her friend Susannah. The sun-drenched summer saga follows the girls as their feelings become realized, their secret sun-kissed life takes shape, and the pressure of the world takes a toll. It’s achingly tragic, painfully sweet, and altogether impossible to put down.

While the novel is deeply Irish, the story is globally relatable—which lesbians among us didn’t fall in love with their best friend in high school? 

Howarth, for one, was not one of the unlucky lesbians who fell hard for the unattainable girl in her friend group, but she is no stranger to queer adolescent yearning. “I remember this one girl in particular. Kind of like catching myself watching her, And I was like, ‘Shit what are you doing?’ That’s such an intense thought process that you’re having over her, and she has no idea,” Howarth tells GO. “You feel embarrassed then, not even for the fact that you kind of fancy the person, but it’s embarrassing how suddenly strong your emotions are.”

While the novel feels incredibly singular, the intensity of Lucy’s yearning ties it to a long list of sapphic novels who are filled with that insatiable desire that runs through many queer experiences. “I think maybe it’s to do with the fact that, often in these stories, the relationship can’t be. It just intensifies your want for that person so much more because they’re out of your reach. And so there’s nothing you can do but yearn for them and long for them,” Howarth says. “Who knows in the next 20, 30 years, queer stories written in the western world might move away from that because it’s not necessarily the experience that we’re having widely anymore.” 

When the idea of Sunburn first came to Howarth, she was certain she wanted to write a novel that was two things—queer and Irish. Growing up in a tiny rural village in Ireland, much like the setting of the novel, the writing came inherently to her. “I used to write not from an Irish perspective, but from this very nebulous place. I kind of refused to give any of my writing a particular setting. I didn’t want my characters to be from anywhere, because I thought that was good, and maybe if a different author was doing it, it would be good, but it wasn’t helping me,” she says. “When I was writing Sunburn, I was like, ‘let me just do something really Irish.’ It just all came so naturally.” 

What also came naturally were the religious themes inherent to Irish life. While Howarth did not grow up in a religious home, the cultural prevalence of religion seeped into her Irish adolescence. The novel drips with delicious religious iconography that will be all too relatable for any religious-raised sapphics— “To be with her was a sin, to be without her is a tragedy;” “I knew she would be beautiful today, of course I knew, but this is unbelievable. Never in all my years of Christianity has there been talk of an angel like this;” “…she took her Eucharist before mine and I quietly apologised to Jesus for the downgrade from her tongue to mine.”

Leaving religion out of the story was not an option in Howarth’s mind. “You can’t really write a book set in Ireland prior to 2010 that isn’t full of religion,” Howarth says. “It’s not even really to do with your relationship to God. For me, growing up, it wasn’t. It’s just such a part of the culture that you just learn all about this, and you go through all of the ceremony and the rites, and everything. It just becomes part of your existence and the way that you’re shaped in the world.” 

While Howarth’s tiny hometown did not offer much in the way of queer media or culture, her novel inspired by the very place she grew up is quickly becoming a modern queer classic for young sapphics everywhere. With over 70,000 copies sold worldwide, numerous award nominations, and endless social media attention, Howarth has become the author of the very media she missed out on—and it’s changed her life forever. 

“I get some messages from people who grew up near me, and they say, ‘Oh my god, I actually had that experience, and you’re really telling my story.’ Then I get messages from people in Argentina. And they’re like, ‘That’s my experience that you’ve written.’ I didn’t really think that it was such a universal experience. It’s been really, really special, really sweet,” Howarth said. “Every time I get a message like that from someone, I want to have a group chat where I can put them all together and be like, ‘You all relate to each other.’ I guess you don’t think that if you go through something. You’re like, ‘Well, no one, no one will ever know what that was like,’ and then it turns out that maybe every lesbian alive has had this experience.”

The reception has also helped Howarth find her identity as a writer. “I was kind of trying to really downplay the fact that I wrote this book and that it was coming out and everything. So I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want people to read what I’ve written.’ I was not embarrassed by it, but I was embarrassed to be seen trying,” she said. “I don’t have that anymore. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I do write, and that’s fine. It’s not a crime.’ I think I’ve kind of become more confident in what I’m doing.”

While the U.S. is just about to get a taste of Howarth’s singular prose and powerful storytelling, her second novel, Heap Earth Upon It, is already being released in Europe this fall. If Sunburn is the oranges, reds, and heat of summer, this story is the blues, grays, and coldness of winter. While Howarth explains that it’s a whole different world, she assures that this novel’s queer yearning is “a lot more intense.” 

Throughout the last two years following Sunburn’s success, Howarth, like the main character Lucy, has found herself evolving. “I really felt like I was grown up at the time, but now I really do feel a lot more grown up than I was then. I’m gonna be 29 in a few weeks, and I think that I’m getting there maybe,” she said. With a new perspective, a confidence in her craft and a ready audience, there is no end to the places, characters, stories, and of course, yearning, Howarth will provide for future sapphic readers everywhere.

‘Sunburn’ is available for pre-order now and will officially be released in the U.S. on July 8. More information at https://mhpbooks.com/books/sunburn