It is the triumph of this novel that Doyle - entirely without condescension - shows the inner life of this battered housewife to be the same stuff as that of the heroes of the great novels of Europe Mary Gordon, New York Times Book Review In feeling the pulse of a raw Dublin suburb, Doyle is recording a beat that can be recognised all over the world The Times Impassioned, dignified and richly humane Independent ‘Roddy Doyle's unsparing examination of a brutal marriage transcends the boundaries of class and nationhood’ The Times Read moreĮven more mesmerizing than his prize-winning Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Daily Mail As the past floats by and mingles with the present Paula Spencer finds herself coming alive, in all her vulnerability and her strength. Everything was better then, not least the music, the soundtrack to her romance with Charlo.

Paula’s started drinking more and dreaming more, taking herself back to her contented childhood and audacious teenage years. Paula Spencer is thirty-nine, the mother of four and learning to live without Charlo, her violent, abusive husband.

From the Booker Prize winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and The Commitments comes the story of Paula Spencer: an ordinary woman whose extraordinary character will stay with you long after reading.įrom the Booker Prize winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and The Commitments: the story of an ordinary woman whose extraordinary character will stay with you long after reading.

The women who walked into doors