Jillian Godsil on the many twists and turns in life that have led to the publication and launch of her novel, Running out of Road.
I interviewed well known Irish children’s author Sarah Webb a few years ago. Naturally the conversation centred on books, especially re-reading books and how our perspective might have changed in the interim. I used the example of The Women’s Room (1977) by Marilyn French which I have read twice, once as a young twenty something and then again in my later thirties. It was close enough in time to recall the book well and far enough for my world view to be completely different. Suffice to say, my more mature self appreciated the book much better. I need to have another read soon as a woman in her third age.
A New Home in Arklow
The conversation was also linked to my moving into my new home in Arklow and bringing my large collection of books with me. Now, many of these I have read at least once before. Indeed, while on holiday last week I took Grimus (1975) by Salman Rushdie and upon opening the fly leaf saw a label I had thoughtfully inserted with my name, city of residence at the time, London, and the date,1989. Funnily enough I had tried unsuccessfully to read it in the noughties but somehow it is resonating with me now. This re-reading is a funny business.
The point of this observation is that I have had an occasion to re read my first adult novel. Here, I must digress in the manner of Tristram Shandy (1759) and still hope to make a conclusion, and to point out that when I say adult, I mean merely that. I do not mean adult as in the adult industry. That label may be reserved for my second novel, or rather my trilogy of novels, which were most certainly adult in nature. On that, another time perhaps: https://www.writing.ie/tell-your-own-story/an-uncomfortable-truth-aoife-brennan/
Running out of Road
So back to my novel, Running out of Road, which I penned in 2010. It is, IMHO, a force of nature, a torrent of emotions and a desperate flight to freedom. It is the story of one woman’s dash away from pain, from her history and towards her future. In my fact life, it was a direct result of divorce, recession, home repossession, changing the law, and running in the 2014 European Parliamentary Elections (topping the independent tally with 11,500 votes).
Me – a woman of no library tickets, car penalty points or any misdemeanours – launched into a world where fairness did not exist, karma had done a bunk and my life was stripped bare of money, respectability, and stability. I wrote it in a number of weeks. It poured out of me, visceral and painful, and yet exuberant.
My Fiction Life
The exuberance can be explained by my fiction life. I was a fan of Atonement (2001) by Ian McEwan and the versatile ending. I was a child to the film version of The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981) and I still believed in rewriting my ending, the ending.
But then three things happened. Last year this debut novel was picked up by an independent American publisher, Morgan Whitney Media. Last year I received a cancer diagnosis. And this year I attended a creative writing class hosted by Irish writer Eimear O’Reilly (M is for Mammy, 2019).
The joy of being picked up by an independent publisher forced me to re-read my book. Now I know you are meant to kill your darlings and be super critical in that Irish way (oh, this old thing, Penneys!) but I loved my little book upon re reading. I held it close to me and cried for the woman who had written it with such love and hope.
A Cancer Diagnosis
The cancer diagnosis had a very different impact. I was diagnosed with breast cancer, operated on, treated and then became cancer free all in about three months. Phew. A friend of mine explained. When you have cancer it’s like the bombs are falling non-stop. Then when you are cancer free, the bombing stops, but you are still in the middle of the rubble. That takes time to clear up, if ever. But the gift of cancer is that it gave me a renewed joy of life. I hadn’t lost my joy but I had expected other things to happen, to balance the unfairness of my period of activism. This hasn’t really happened but I’m not waiting anymore, I’m taking my current joy with both hands and running with it.
Analysing Running out of Road
Finally on the first day of the course, we were asked to analyse a novel, so I picked Running out of Road. It was as if the scales had fallen from my eyes. I know the context, I know the impetus and I know the inspiration for my novel, but in reality, I had written a story about a woman and her relationship with her mother. A difficult relationship that was only resolved traumatically and with a new beginning. Think The L Shaped Room (1960) and the messy business of life and new life.
So before I leave the last words to my very kind publisher Rionna Whitney Morgan I want to add a note that I loved my late mother with all my heart and that the mother in the novel is the direct antithesis of my own smart, kind, loving and perceptive mother.
(c) Jillian Godsil
About Running out of Road by Jillian Godsil:
Running Out of Road is the kind of novel that stays with the reader—tender, sharp, and deeply human. Jillian Godsil captures the quiet courage it takes to reinvent a life, and she does it with humor, heart, and a fierce sense of place. There’s an ache in these pages, but it’s never hopeless; it’s the ache of becoming, of looking back without flinching and still choosing to move forward.
In many ways, Running Out of Road feels like the Irish I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou—not because the stories are the same but because the emotional journey is. It carries that same honest reckoning, that same sense of a life examined from the inside out, and the same resilience that rises up even when the road narrows. It’s a story about what we survive, what we carry, and what we finally set down so we can step into the next chapter with dignity and truth.
This is exactly why Whitney Morgan Media publishes across borders: because stories rooted in truth aren’t limited to a single locale. When a book is this grounded, in voice, in place, in emotional integrity, it doesn’t matter where the reader lives. The humanity reaches them anyway, and the story becomes a companion: a mirror for their own reinvention and a reminder that freedom can be claimed one brave choice at a time.
Universal Book Buy Link: https://books2read.com/runningoutofroad
Running out of Road will be launched at Arklow Library, Tuesday 9th June, 6-8pm.
Read Jillian telling us about the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica here.
