Ana Kinsella's debut novel, 'Frida Slattery As Herself', introduces us to Frida, a 23-year-old Dublin woman who is 'addicted' to theatre but hasn't quite cracked the acting code - she didn't even get into drama school. Enter John Reddan, a 28-year-old writer-director who just had a play staged at a 'real theatre' (fancy). Their meet-cute happens in Kehoe's pub, followed by a mystifying walk through Dublin during which John interviews Frida like she's applying for a job she didn't know existed. When she asks about roles for 'women in their early twenties', he responds with the kind of pretentious question that would make any rom-com protagonist swoon: 'Is that how you think of yourself, Frida? As nothing more than "a woman in her early twenties"?'

Frida is a compelling lead not because of what she says or does, but because of her physicality - she rolls her neck and bobs on her feet after community theatre performances like a prizefighter. Her friend Catherine, who once owned an espresso machine and now has a proper job, introduces her to John. Frida, living in a bedsit, just wants something to happen. Over the next 12 sections, spanning 2005 to 2021 and cities like London, Los Angeles, and New York, they collaborate on projects, take a one-woman show to Irish secondary schools (complete with budget B&Bs), and navigate the treacherous waters of dating, splitting, and betraying each other in various ways. By their 30s, Frida lands a gig on a popular US TV show, and John directs a play on Broadway - because of course he does.

The engine of the book is romantic - will they or won't they? - but the real magic lies in their creative symbiosis. Frida is an actor who can't see her own charisma; John is a director who realizes his best material comes from his collaborators, especially Frida. The most enjoyable bits are when they're writing, improvising, rehearsing, experimenting. Inside the reliable pull of a well-written love story, Kinsella has crafted a clever, ludic, and unexpected novel - like good theatre, but with fewer uncomfortable chairs.