Nothing Compares To You:
What Sinéad O’Connor Means to Us
Nothing Compares To You: What Sinéad O’Connor Means to Us. Edited by Sonya Huber & Martha Bayne. Atria/One Signal, Simon & Schuster, July 2025. Foreword by Neko Case.
$28.99, hardcover, 256 pages. ISBN: 9781668078334
Audiobook available via Audible
Send media and ARC requests to Maria Mann, maria.mann@simonandschuster.com.
Interview requests to Sonya Huber at shuber@fairfield.edu and Martha Bayne at martha.bayne@gmail.com.
Cover image and editor headshots available under “Resources and Downloads” on the Simon & Schuster website.
We have lived with her voice in our ears, our minds, and hearts, and when Sinéad O’Connor died in July 2023, we were shaken to our cores. We came together to return to the music, the artist, and the human she was, and to understand what we had lost and gained. We were reminded of how much we all need her rebellious, soulful, and searching spirit right now. Each of our authors chose a different song from Sinéad O’Connor’s legendary playlist, which has shaped a generation and continues to resonate. Rather than a collection of music criticism, each essay delves into the lyrics, the memories, and the personal experiences that have entwined with these songs.
NEKO CASE—Foreword: Sinéad the Undying, excerpted at LitHub, July 24, 2025 as “Why Sinéad Matters Today as Much as She Ever Did”
SHARBARI ZOHRA AHMED—For Shuhada: “Heroine”
ZOE ZOLBROD—When We All Knew They Were All Wrong: “Jackie”
SINÉAD GLEESON—Feel No Pain: “Mandinka”
GINA FRANGELLO—Of Fire and Ash: “Troy”
POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR—Open Letters to a Spiritual Soldier: “I Want Your (Hands on Me)”
MILLICENT SOURIS—Listen to the Man at the Liquor Store: “Drink Before the War”
MADHUSHREE GHOSH—Bindaas: “Feel So Different”
HEIDI CZERWIEC—Keen and Keen: “I Am Stretched on Your Grave”
BROOKE CHAMPAGNE—Bringing You Closer to Me: “Three Babies”
SARAH VIREN—Brambles: “Black Boys on Mopeds”
MEGAN STIELSTRA—Girl You Better Try to Have Fun, excerpted July 22, 2025 at Oldster: “Nothing Compares 2 U”
MAY-LEE CHAI—A Mother-Daughter Blood Story: “Jump in the River”
SONYA HUBER—As You Summon Steel: “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance”
STACEY LYNN BROWN—To Go Without: “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got”
MIEKE EERKENS—You Are Something: “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”
STEPHANIE ELIZONDO GRIEST—I Say War: “War”
LEAH LAKSHMI PIEPZNA-SAMARASINHA—patron saint: “Thank You for Hearing Me”
LAURETTA HANNON—St. Sinéad: “Famine”
MARTHA BAYNE—Sunshower: “The Wolf Is Getting Married”
LIDIA YUKNAVITCH—Holy Shit (A Love Letter): “Song to the Siren”
JILL CHRISTMAN—Precious to Me: “My Special Child”
RAYNE FISHER-QUANN—Sorry for Disappointing: “Daddy I’m Fine”
MYRIAM GURBA—Lo Siento: “All Apologies”
NALINI JONES—Ghosts: “Molly Malone”
ALLYSON McCABE—Truthful Witness: “Horse on the Highway”
More than thirty years ago, Sinéad O’Connor shocked the world by tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II in an act of protest against the violence perpetrated by the Catholic Church. This single act cemented O’Connor’s place as a fearless voice and activist that would later push even further as Sinead became an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness, the LGBTQ+ community, and abortion rights. Here in Nothing Compares to You, a renowned and multi-generational group of women and non-binary authors come together to pay tribute to O’Connor’s impact on our world and in their own lives and development as humans and artists.
Nothing Compares to You is a loving and accessible reconsideration and entry point for understanding the Irish icon. Exploring themes such as gender identity, spirituality, artistic expression, and personal transformation, this collection shows that Sinead’s voice continues to ring on even after her death and brilliantly illustrates the power of creative expression to inspire far beyond any presumed lines of age, culture, or class.
Events
June 12, 2025: South Bend, Indiana
6 pm: Book Party at Nonfiction Now! Join us to raise a glass and celebrate our authors at Danny Boy Draft Works, 54721 Burdette St.
South Bend, IN 46637.
July 15 @ 6 pm: Dublin, Ireland
Hodges Figgis Bookshop: Martha Bayne, Mieke Eerkens, Sinead Gleeson, and Allyson McCabe in conversation with Una Mullaley
July 17, 2025 @ 8:30 pm: Bantry, Ireland
West Cork Literary Festival: Martha Bayne, Mieke Eerkens, and Allyson McCabe in conversation with Eoghan O'Sullivan
July 22, 2025 @ 7 pm: New York, New York
Books Are Magic, 122 Montague St., Brooklyn, NY 11201. Launch event with Sharbari Ahmed, Martha Bayne, Sonya Huber, Porochista Khakpour, Millicent Souris, and Zoe Zolbrod, with musical guest Monique Bingham. And on YouTube live!
July 28, 2025 Doors @ 6:30, Show @ 7:30: Chicago, Illinois
GMan Tavern: (Bar attached to Cabaret Metro) Book talk and party with Martha Bayne, Sonya Huber, Zoe Zolbrod, Megan Stielstra, and Gina Frangello -- plus musical performances of Sinead O'Connor songs by Eiren Caffall, Nora O'Connor, Jeanine O'Toole, Julie Pomerleau, Marydee Reynolds, Jane Roberts, Amalea Tshilds, and L. Wyatt. 3740 N Clark St. | Chicago, IL 60613
August 6, 2025 @ 7 pm: Westport, Connecticut
Launch and conversation with Sharbari Ahmed, Sonya Huber, and Nalini Jones. Westport Public Library, 20 Jesup Road Westport, CT 06880 203.291.4800
Other events TBA!
Praise & Reviews
Publisher’s Weekly: Huber (Voice First), an associate professor of creative writing at Fairfield University, and essayist Bayne (The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook) assemble an eclectic tribute to Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor, who died in 2023. How O’Connor’s feminism influenced the book’s contributors is a major through line. For example, novelist Zoe Zolbrod recalls discovering O’Connor’s music in college, when the musician’s decision to shave her head in response to “her record label’s plan to market her as a pretty girl” inspired Zolbrod and her friends to enact their own forms of “bodily protest” (“One after another, women showed up at the house with shorn heads, rubbing their palms over their stubbly scalps for the sensual pleasure”). NPR journalist Allyson McCabe positions O’Connor as a truth-teller who was open about being abused by her mother, while essayist Myriam Gurba intriguingly reframes O’Connor’s relationship to religion and ethics, noting that despite the musician’s take-no-prisoners image, she was “generous with both apologies and forgiveness. She understood the velocity of grace... how it could move between two people.” While many of the essays focus on the same incidents—including O’Connor’s famous 1992 SNL performance, during which she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II—the book’s varied registers (some lyrical, others analytical) ensure that the perspective is never repetitive, and the composite effectively reveals the intimate ways in which an artist can shape her listeners’ lives. The result is a vivid and multifaceted ode to a trailblazing musician. (July)
“Huber had the idea for the book in the wake of O’Connor’s death in July 2023, which triggered a wave of mourning among fans. “I think so many of us were overwhelmed at the degree to which we were upset,” she says. “It went beyond the many other losses of musicians. And I think for many of us it also really intersected with the political situation in the US at the time, and the idea that so much of our politics felt like an attempt to turn back the clock. I remember driving to the airport and rocking out to The Last Day of Our Acquaintance and other songs, and my first instinct was that I wanted to hear other people’s stories of their relationships to her via a particular song.”
After posing the question to gauge interest among her Facebook friends, she was struck by “how intense and vociferous” the response was. She enlisted Bayne as co-editor, and the pair decided to illustrate O’Connor’s geographical and cultural reach by including as many diverse voices as possible…Bayne and Huber’s own essays take a more personal slant. Bayne writes movingly about overcoming trauma from her past in relation to the song The Wolf Is Getting Married; Huber’s brave recollection of leaving an abusive marriage, framed around The Last Day of Our Acquaintance, is a powerful read. Although they are both experienced essayists, they admit that finding the courage to be so vulnerable about their personal lives was not easy.” July
All the Books! Book Riot Podcast for July 22, 2025:
Readings and Interviews
Sinéad Gleeson and Martha Bayne discuss the book on RTÉ Radio 1, July 22, 2025
