Aisling Rawle: The Compound novel is ‘dark satire of reality television'
The Compound is a dark satire of reality
television
. We follow 19 contestants in an isolated setting in the desert as they compete for rewards and possible fame. I suppose the Lord of the Flies aspect is that the contestants do turn on each other the longer they're there; the contestants hoard resources and try to wrestle power where they can.
What is your take on the phenomenon of reality TV?
I find it to be an interesting commentary on voyeurism in the digital age. I think in this eerie time of surveillance capitalism, we've not only normalised monetised monitoring, but made it into entertainment.
READ MORE
You also shine a critical light on consumerism and materialism...
Yes; this to me was the driving force of the novel, and the reality television setting felt like a nice container for that conversation. I wanted to discuss the idea that capitalism doesn't want contentment; it wants consumption.
Did you also want to address the mid-to-late 20s rush to do something meaningful, carve a path, meet a match and create an identity?
The main tenets of the show seemed to me the tenets of early adult life: find a partner, get a house, acquire nice things. There's a sense of urgency that feels at odds with the economic and ecological state we're living in.
How did the novel evolve as you wrote it? The tone is quite dark in places. Was that always your intention?
Once I had the rules of the show down, I was happy to let the characters lead the story. I knew that in a highly manipulated and manipulative setting, you were going to see the worst of people. I wondered what would happen if, for example, water became scarce in the desert – who would be the first to turn on another?
[
The best books for summer 2025
Opens in new window
]
You're an English teacher. Did that help, apart from writing the book during your first long summer holiday?
Definitely. Aside from the fact that I got to spend my days discussing my favourite writers, I always fed off of my students' enthusiasm. Reading and writing are very insular experiences, but having those conversations with students made it all more wholesome and exciting, to be able to share that love of literature, and respond in turn to their insights.
You've also worked as a bookseller. What did that teach you?
I had terrible FOMO when people came in discussing books I had never heard of. I started picking up anything and everything; it was a great way to broaden my horizons.
US film rights have already been optioned. Any updates?
It's still very early days – I can't say much.
Your brother David Rawle was the star of Moone Boy. Could you see him getting cast? Who would be your ideal stars?
Ah, it would be too strange. I really haven't given it too much thought, I'm honestly just so thrilled that it's made it into a novel.
You're from Leitrim and live in Dublin. Has the literary culture of each place rubbed off on you?
I grew up in the same village as the writer/actor/director Seamus O'Rourke, and I always felt that his talent for storytelling was a gift we all greatly benefited from. In Dublin, there are so many talented writers at work – but Joyce is an all-time favourite, and it's a pleasure to live in the setting of his masterworks.
Which projects are you working on?
I'm happily scribbling away at my next book.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
Yes, I went to Paris for a literary tour. Wilde, de Beauvoir, Joyce, Hemingway – it was all divine.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
You only vomit what you eat. Your writing is an amalgamation of everything that you've read; and I've definitely found that if the writing is stalling, it's time to read some good prose.
Who do you admire the most?
My siblings!
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
I'm nixing parking tickets. Give a girl a break.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
Isola by Allegra Goodman; Friendship directed by Andrew DeYoung; and I'm Grand Mam.
Which public event affected you most?
I saw an immersive play of The Dead a few months ago, set in the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI). It was absolutely sublime to be fully in the scene, at the party, listening to the music and the speeches.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
The Acropolis of Athens.
Your most treasured possession?
My piano.
Aisling's brother David Rawle and actor Chris O'Dowd star in award-winning Moone Boy. Photograph: Pat Redmond
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
Emily Wilson's translation of The Iliad.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry, Zadie Smith, Jane Austen, Elena Ferrante.
The best and worst things about where you live?
The people make Dublin. The rent prices do a fairly comprehensive job of ruining it.
What is your favourite quotation?
'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,' from Hamlet.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Maybe Joe Gargery from Great Expectations.
A book to make me laugh?
Temporary by Hilary Leichter.
A book that might move me to tears?
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
The Compound is published by the Borough Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Irish Times
Maureen Dowd: CBS and other media outlets caving to Trump is sickening. At least South Park will still hold people accountable
We haven't heard this much talk about the presidential anatomy since the other guy in the Jeffrey Epstein files was in the Oval. President Donald Trump , a master at minimising others, is now being literally minimised on South Park by the crass and fearless creators of the cartoon. I could have told Trump that it's best not to provoke brilliant satirists. I learned that lesson the hard way 20 years ago. When I wrote Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk, about the tangled father and son saga that led to the invasion of Iraq , I wanted Pat Oliphant, a lacerating political cartoonist, to do the book's cover. READ MORE I wheedled until that acerbic Aussie finally agreed. When the drawing came back, it was dazzling: a tiny, jangly-eyed George W Bush under a big cowboy hat, his hands braced at the guns on his holster. He was walking down the driveway of an overgrown haunted version of the White House with a gargoyle hanging from the trees. Oliphant had given the president the body of a bug. Even though the book was harshly critical of W Bush and his scheming advisers, I was worried that the sketch might be a bit too disrespectful to the president. The cartoonist was a firm believer in 'stirring up the beast', as he called it, taking a torch to the lies and hypocrisy of the powerful. So, naturally, he was contemptuous when I suggested that we make W Bush less buglike. But, faced with more wheedling, he reluctantly agreed to take another crack at it. I waited nervously. When the new illustration came in, W Bush no longer looked like a bug. Oliphant had made the president look more like a monkey. And he was even smaller. It was a valuable lesson. Don't mess with satirists. They'll always have the last say, and it will be blistering. Even though jesters had more leeway in ancient courts to speak truth to monarchs, rulers could order up an axe or a noose if the truth cut too close to the bone. [ 'I will not be intimidated': But has Rupert Murdoch met his nemesis in Donald Trump? Opens in new window ] As the Fool says to Lear: 'I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are: They'll have me whipped for speaking true, thou'lt have me whipped for lying; and sometimes I am whipped for holding my peace.' Drew Lichtenberg, the dramaturge at Washington's Shakespeare Theater Company, told me: 'Queen Elizabeth I passed a series of 'Vagabond Acts' making it illegal to be a travelling player, unless you had an aristocratic patron. Freelance actors were regarded as homeless people unless they wore the livery of a lord. It was the 16th-century version of yanking Stephen Colbert off the air , censoring the broadcast of views that the ruler didn't want performed without their say-so.' Recently, Colbert scorched Paramount , CBS' parent company, for caving to Trump with a $16 million (€13.6 million) settlement over his 60 Minutes lawsuit, hoping to get the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to favour its merger with Skydance. 'I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles,' the comedian said. 'It's big, fat bribe.' A few days later, news broke that CBS, which has cratered from the Tiffany network to the Trump-fealty network, had cancelled the top-rated broadcast show for financial reasons. But who can believe that's the whole story? If it were just about money, there were a lot of better ways to handle Colbert, a big talent and valuable brand. CBS could have cut costs, or it could have transitioned him over the next five years into some combination of streaming or podcasting within the Paramount family. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a staple of late-night US television, will end in 2026, the CBS network said, days after the comedian blasted parent company Paramount's $16 million settlement with Donald Trump as 'a big fat bribe'. Photograph:Announcing that he was being dumped right after he criticised CBS reeked of censorship. Certainly, King Trump celebrated, crowing on Truth Social: 'I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired.' He even added: 'I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next.' The FCC chair, Brendan Carr, said that The View – airing on ABC, which also caved to Trump, paying a whopping $15 million for George Stephanopoulos' misspeaking – might be in the administration's crosshairs. 'Once President Trump has exposed these media gatekeepers and smashed this facade, there's a lot of consequences,' Carr said, ominously. CBS is, as Colbert said, 'morally bankrupt'. It's sickening to see media outlets, universities, law firms and tech companies bending the knee. (Hang tough, Rupert!) Satirists are left to hold people accountable, and they are more than ready. Colbert's fellow humorists jumped in to back him up, most brazenly the South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, fresh off a Paramount deal worth more than $1.25 billion. (South Park, popular with conservatives, does not defend liberals; it loves jeering at both sides and woke overreach.) Its 27th season premiere – 'Sermon on the 'Mount,' as in Paramount – featured Trump with a 'teeny-tiny' you-know-what. It depicted the president cuddling with Satan and romancing a sheep. It ripped the Paramount deal, the CBS settlement, the Colbert firing, Trump's 'power to sue and take bribes' and the president's manic attempt to divert attention from ties to Epstein, as the paedophile's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell , no doubt angles for a pardon by spilling some information. It also showed a deepfake of Trump, rotund and naked, walking in the desert, Christ-like, 'for America'. As Puck's Matthew Belloni said: 'The AI deepfake Trump was particularly brilliant, given that the same day the episode aired, the president announced White House AI policy positions favouring lacklustre protections against exactly this kind of dangerous technology.' The White House sniffed that 'no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak'. At Comic-Con on Thursday, the South Park creators were deadpan about their rebellious reaction to Trump's attempt to stifle critics and wreak revenge. 'We're terribly sorry,' Parker said, making it clear they were anything but. The tiger picnics last. – the New York Times
Irish Times
19-07-2025
- Irish Times
Aisling Rawle: The Compound novel is ‘dark satire of reality television'
Tell us about your debut novel, The Compound. Louise O'Neill called it 'Lord of the Flies meets Love Island'! The Compound is a dark satire of reality television . We follow 19 contestants in an isolated setting in the desert as they compete for rewards and possible fame. I suppose the Lord of the Flies aspect is that the contestants do turn on each other the longer they're there; the contestants hoard resources and try to wrestle power where they can. What is your take on the phenomenon of reality TV? I find it to be an interesting commentary on voyeurism in the digital age. I think in this eerie time of surveillance capitalism, we've not only normalised monetised monitoring, but made it into entertainment. READ MORE You also shine a critical light on consumerism and materialism... Yes; this to me was the driving force of the novel, and the reality television setting felt like a nice container for that conversation. I wanted to discuss the idea that capitalism doesn't want contentment; it wants consumption. Did you also want to address the mid-to-late 20s rush to do something meaningful, carve a path, meet a match and create an identity? The main tenets of the show seemed to me the tenets of early adult life: find a partner, get a house, acquire nice things. There's a sense of urgency that feels at odds with the economic and ecological state we're living in. How did the novel evolve as you wrote it? The tone is quite dark in places. Was that always your intention? Once I had the rules of the show down, I was happy to let the characters lead the story. I knew that in a highly manipulated and manipulative setting, you were going to see the worst of people. I wondered what would happen if, for example, water became scarce in the desert – who would be the first to turn on another? [ The best books for summer 2025 Opens in new window ] You're an English teacher. Did that help, apart from writing the book during your first long summer holiday? Definitely. Aside from the fact that I got to spend my days discussing my favourite writers, I always fed off of my students' enthusiasm. Reading and writing are very insular experiences, but having those conversations with students made it all more wholesome and exciting, to be able to share that love of literature, and respond in turn to their insights. You've also worked as a bookseller. What did that teach you? I had terrible FOMO when people came in discussing books I had never heard of. I started picking up anything and everything; it was a great way to broaden my horizons. US film rights have already been optioned. Any updates? It's still very early days – I can't say much. Your brother David Rawle was the star of Moone Boy. Could you see him getting cast? Who would be your ideal stars? Ah, it would be too strange. I really haven't given it too much thought, I'm honestly just so thrilled that it's made it into a novel. You're from Leitrim and live in Dublin. Has the literary culture of each place rubbed off on you? I grew up in the same village as the writer/actor/director Seamus O'Rourke, and I always felt that his talent for storytelling was a gift we all greatly benefited from. In Dublin, there are so many talented writers at work – but Joyce is an all-time favourite, and it's a pleasure to live in the setting of his masterworks. Which projects are you working on? I'm happily scribbling away at my next book. Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage? Yes, I went to Paris for a literary tour. Wilde, de Beauvoir, Joyce, Hemingway – it was all divine. What is the best writing advice you have heard? You only vomit what you eat. Your writing is an amalgamation of everything that you've read; and I've definitely found that if the writing is stalling, it's time to read some good prose. Who do you admire the most? My siblings! You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish? I'm nixing parking tickets. Give a girl a break. Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend? Isola by Allegra Goodman; Friendship directed by Andrew DeYoung; and I'm Grand Mam. Which public event affected you most? I saw an immersive play of The Dead a few months ago, set in the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI). It was absolutely sublime to be fully in the scene, at the party, listening to the music and the speeches. The most remarkable place you have visited? The Acropolis of Athens. Your most treasured possession? My piano. Aisling's brother David Rawle and actor Chris O'Dowd star in award-winning Moone Boy. Photograph: Pat Redmond What is the most beautiful book that you own? Emily Wilson's translation of The Iliad. Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party? Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry, Zadie Smith, Jane Austen, Elena Ferrante. The best and worst things about where you live? The people make Dublin. The rent prices do a fairly comprehensive job of ruining it. What is your favourite quotation? 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,' from Hamlet. Who is your favourite fictional character? Maybe Joe Gargery from Great Expectations. A book to make me laugh? Temporary by Hilary Leichter. A book that might move me to tears? Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. The Compound is published by the Borough Press
Irish Examiner
05-07-2025
- Irish Examiner
Aisling Rawle: 'I feel like we're living in The Truman Show'
Since the days of Big Brother, reality TV has been a world ripe for extreme behaviour — making it the perfect setting for a thrilling novel about what happens when the experience goes wrong. Irish author Aisling Rawle describes her debut, The Compound, as 'Love Island meets Lord of the Flies' and 'Animal Farm — but if everyone was hot and wanted skincare'. In the opening pages, its protagonist Lily — a young, attractive 20-something — wakes up in a large house surrounded by an expansive desert. She's willingly taking part in The Compound, a reality show that sees young men and women couple up and compete for prizes. But from the off, it's clear that life in the compound will be anything but easy. There are several striking things about Rawle. One is that she's so softly-spoken that my recording device barely picks up her voice in the busy cafe, but what she has to say about reality TV, materialism, and social media is deeply wise. The second is that she's not a die-hard reality TV fan. The third? She's not on social media. Despite this, the 27-year-old Leitrim-born, Dublin-based former English teacher (she's currently on a break to focus on her writing) is an astute guide to what reality TV can tell us about human behaviour. Aisling Rawle, author: "I woke up with this image in my head, which was the first scene of the novel: two beautiful women, walking around the house and finding the bodies of other beautiful women strewn around like litter," Photograph Moya Nolan The idea for the book emerged during Rawle's summer break two years ago. 'The first day of the holidays, I woke up with this image in my head, which was the first scene of the novel: two beautiful women, walking around the house and finding the bodies of other beautiful women strewn around like litter,' she says. 'I wrote that scene and then I wrote the rest of it in this mad rush. When it was finished, I knew so little about the publishing industry that I was brazen enough to reach out to an agent and she very kindly took me on.' The book was written in a six-week 'fever dream' and soon multiple publishers were bidding to publish The Compound in Ireland and overseas. The novel picks apart the 'extreme' gender stereotyping across many reality TV shows. 'While the girls are thinking 'who's the prettiest in the house?', the boys are fighting in the desert,' Rawle says of The Compound. 'I think that it is such a cruel aspect of dating shows and reality TV shows — the appearance of women is so scrutinised, and it's seen as the most important thing. I think we take it for granted. Even things like the Kardashian [family], it feels like so many conversations revolve around their relative attractiveness. They'll even do it amongst each other. I remember one viral moment of [Kim] Kardashian saying [to her sister Kourtney], 'you are the least interesting to look at'.' Aisling Rawle, author: 'While the girls are thinking 'who's the prettiest in the house?', the boys are fighting in the desert' Photograph Moya Nolan While watching Love Island during the pandemic, Rawle and her friends started to jokingly describe it as 'heterosexual paradise'. 'The heteronormativity is astounding,' she says with a baffled laugh. 'It does present the idea not only that the norm is heterosexuality, but that the people worth viewing are heterosexual.' She examines this in the novel, with readers guessing whether characters are really as straight as they present themselves. The book is set in the not-too-distant future, and hints at climate issues and ongoing wars. 'We don't know a whole lot about the outside, but it's burning and there's conflict and tension and Lily desperately wants to get away. To me, that didn't feel very dissimilar to the world today,' says Rawle. The producers in The Compound come off as manipulative, faceless people who push the participants to do terrible things. 'I wanted to put a little bit of finger-pointing towards the people who create these really toxic situations and pass it off as entertainment,' she says. As readers, we know the producers have the power, but we recognise that the viewers are culpable too. Rawle watched a lot of Love Island during the covid lockdowns. 'I think that reality television shows normalised having people that we don't know inside our house as entertainment, which I think probably also paved the way for influencer culture, which I also wanted to criticise a little in this book,' she says. Aisling Rawle, author: 'I think that reality television shows normalised having people that we don't know inside our house as entertainment, which I think probably also paved the way for influencer culture." Photograph Moya Nolan While she sees influencing as a valid way of making a living, the 'transactional nature' of it can feel inauthentic and lead to people second-guessing what is a genuine human interaction or not. 'We all know that social media is fake, and we've known that for years, but I think the more it creeps into our lives, the more we've normalised that fakeness is the exchange of reality,' she says, adding later with a laugh: 'I feel like we're living in The Truman Show … I feel like that's just the norm now,' referring to the 1998 film starring Jim Carrey about a man whose entire life is filmed. She says that with reality television shows, 'there is a strange line between entertainment and exploitation', something that Lily discovers in the house. In The Compound, the participants know that to win the approval of the producers and viewers they must adhere to certain rules. These reflect larger societal expectations on people, says Rawle. 'The three driving forces of the reality TV show were, the driving forces of young adult life. Which is, you have to find a partner, you have to get a house, and then you have to get nice things. That's what it means to be a successful adult. I wanted to turn that up to the extreme.' Aisling Rawle, author: 'Once someone is told they are 'stupid' — and I don't like that word — it is so incredibly difficult to unburden them, and you'll find adults who are 50, 60, 70, still having it in the back of their head, because someone told them [once] 'you're stupid'.' Photograph Moya Nolan Lily is a character who thinks a lot about how people view her, and adjusts herself to meet their expectations. But she also has negative ideas about herself, believing she is stupid. She sees her worth as being tied up in her looks. Lily's belief that she is stupid is something Rawle noticed in students: how judgement can have a lasting impact. 'Once someone is told they are 'stupid' — and I don't like that word — it is so incredibly difficult to unburden them, and you'll find adults who are 50, 60, 70, still having it in the back of their head, because someone told them [once] 'you're stupid'.' The competition in The Compound pits beautiful people against beautiful people, creating a hierarchy of attractiveness. Lily believes she has to be the most desirable person in the compound, and compares herself to everyone else, 'which I think is a horrible way to be', says Rawle. The book is written in the first-person so that the reader could potentially 'understand Lily's experience, but also feel removed enough that you would confront your own associations of judgment'. Aisling Rawle, author: 'It can be a very despairing place, social media.' Photograph Moya Nolan The book helped Rawle work through some of her own frustrations about the issues she explores in it. 'It was very cathartic,' she says. She never knew what the next scene was going to be, comparing herself to an 'evil producer' of the show. 'But I also felt like a viewer of the show going 'who's going tonight?'' The book is underpinned by Rawle's feminism. Growing up with a younger brother and older sister, she says her teenage feminist awakening was spurred on by books such as Jane Eyre. More recently, the novel Detransition Baby by transgender writer Torrey Peters further helped her ideas of gender evolve. Though she once joined Facebook, she isn't on social media. Why? While she says there is a lot of good on the apps, for her staying focused is a priority. She adds: 'It can be a very despairing place, social media.' This gentle refusal of social media is a sign of how Rawle is able to decide what social norms she does and doesn't want to take on board. Part of the book is influenced by her experiences of earning more money after college, and finding that 'life revolved around what was the next thing to purchase, which to me didn't feel like there was a lot of fulfillment or meaning in it'. The Compound by Aisling Rawle The characters in The Compound undertake tasks in order to win expensive items. The tasks can be deeply unpleasant but are seen as worth it because of the result. As someone in her late 20s, she is part of a generation dealing with multiple stresses, most notably the housing crisis. She feels extremely lucky to be able to rent on her own, but recalls teaching piano in the evenings while being a teacher by day. 'I knew teachers who would go home on the weekend and do carpentry jobs, or personal trainer jobs,' she says. Excitingly for an Irish author, The Compound is being published in America and was recently chosen for the Good Morning America book club for July. Rawle remains sanguine: 'The book was the success for me. Everything else was secondary.' While The Compound does end at a moment that's a good jumping-off point for a sequel, Rawle's next book is about something totally unrelated. 'It's funny, the protagonist of the next book is very superstitious, and I've become superstitious — so I'm reluctant to say too much,' she offers. It's an exciting time for Rawle, but she seems well capable of dealing with the whirlwind of publishing a book on both sides of the Atlantic. All that's left is to ask the burning question: would she ever go on a reality show herself? 'It's a definite no,' she says, laughing. 'You couldn't pay me enough!' The Compound by Aisling Rawle, published by Harper Collins, is out now Read More Diary of a Gen Z Student: The differences between Irish and Portugese men when it comes to flirting
