<i>Together We Disappear</i>, a novel, & Voices that Sound: a study of musical and sonic techniques in Max Porter's <i>Grief Is the Thing with Feathers</i>

It investigates how readers experience sound on the page and how integrating other forms into fiction writing can extend its expressive capacities. </div><div><br></div><div>The creative component, <i>Together We Disappear</i>, is set in Tipperary during the summer of 2013. The novel explores grief, memory, and belonging through three interconnected voices. Sarah has returned home after four years away at university.

She re-encounters Pa, with whom she had a brief but formative teenage relationship. In the years since, Pa has been drawn into the orbit of Donny, an older man consumed by loss and recollection. Each character addresses their inner speech to an absent listener who becomes a vessel for memory, longing, and selfhood.

As their lives intertwine, the hold of the past deepens, and the novel examines what it means to leave home and what it means to stay.</div><br><i>Thesis embargoed until 31st December 2030.</i>