First published 2017
The unnamed narrator speaks in fractured, stream-of-consciousness language that mirrors her fractured world. She grows up in rural Ireland with her mother and beloved older brother, who suffers from a brain tumor that shapes both their lives. The girl experiences sexual abuse, religious guilt, and the weight of her family's dysfunction. Her brother's illness casts a shadow over everything, from childhood games to adolescent struggles. She moves through school, relationships, and her own sexual awakening while carrying secrets that isolate her from others. The narrative voice captures her thoughts in broken syntax and incomplete sentences, reflecting a mind trying to process experiences too large for words. As she matures, the girl grapples with love, loss, and the question of whether she can ever escape the patterns that have defined her family. The story reveals how trauma shapes identity and how language itself can become both prison and salvation.
Genres: literary-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: dark, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Ireland
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
80 pages · Paperback · Faber & Faber
Content warnings: abuse, mental-illness, sexual-assault