by Anna Burns
First published 2001
Amelia is eight years old in a world gone wrong. Children around her gather dangerous objects like trophies. Girls at school pack firearms in their bags. Her own family crumbles from within as dysfunction takes hold. She moves through days filled with sexual violence, explosive threats, and people who choose ignorance over truth. Everyone around her struggles to function. Parents cannot parent. Adults cannot protect. The community has lost its ability to nurture anyone, including itself. Amelia faces a brutal question: how does a child survive when the grown-ups have forgotten how to care? She must find her way through a landscape where violence feels normal and tenderness has disappeared. The world demands she stay small and unknowing, but survival might require the opposite.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, abuse, contemporary, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: gritty, intimate, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Belfast (Northern Ireland)
321 pages · Paperback · Flamingo
Content warnings: abuse, child-abuse, domestic-violence, sexual-assault