'Beautifully written and deeply moving.'
The Guardian
Jimmy and Trix were sleeping. Softly she drew the bottom bolt across the door, changed into her nightdress and got under the covers. She cuddled up to herself, listening to the sing-song breathing in the dark. Soon her mind was full of rainbows and lightning strikes... Father Rose was driving Jezabel over the cliff roads into the sky. Declan was tugging her by the arm to the top of Duggans' field. 'Would you, Shell, or wouldn't you?' She slept.
Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, charming, eloquent and persuasive.
But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the centre of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country.
The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.
About the Author
Human suffering frightens many people. Others, it ennobles and drives to action. The writer and human rights campaigner, Siobhan Dowd, who has died of cancer aged 47, was firmly in the latter category. A free spirit, with a zest for life, she was passionately committed to countering oppression and discrimination. She confronted the brutalities of the human condition head-on, with a rare blend of practical engagement and literary flair.
Click here to read The Guardian Obituary about this Carnegie prize winning author...
Click below to read The Guardian review
God and the Bottle - Jamila Gavin finds much to admire in Siobhan Dowd's story of sexual awakening, redemption and hope in 1980s Ireland...
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