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Michelle Gallen - Big Girl, Small Town (2nd Hand Paperback)
SKU B003221
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1 available
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£3.45
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Original price
£3.45
Original price
£3.45
£3.45
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£3.45
Current price
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Synopsis
Shortlisted for The Costa Book Awards 2020, and various other awards.
The darkly-comic story of Majella, who is unapologetically and completely herself.
Routine makes Majella's world small but change is about to make it a whole lot bigger.
* Stuff Majella knows *
- God doesn't punish men with baldness for wearing ladies' knickers.
- Banana-flavoured condoms taste the same as nutrition shakes.
- Not everyone gets a volley of gunshots over their grave as they are being lowered into the ground.
* Stuff Majella doesn't know *
- That she is autistic.
- Why her ma drinks.
- Where her da is.
Other people find Majella odd. She keeps herself to herself, she doesn't like gossip and she isn't interested in knowing her neighbours' business. But suddenly everyone in the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up wants to know all about hers.
Since her da disappeared during the Troubles, Majella has tried to live a quiet life with her alcoholic mother. She works in the local chip shop (Monday-Saturday, Sunday off), wears the same clothes every day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, nuked in the microwave) and binge watches Dallas (the best show ever aired on TV) from the safety of her single bed.
She has no friends and no boyfriend and Majella thinks things are better that way.
But Majella's safe and predictable existence is shattered when her grandmother dies and as much as she wants things to go back to normal, Majella comes to realise that maybe there is more to life. And it might just be that from tragedy comes Majella's one chance at escape.
Details
- Format : Standard 2nd Hand Paperback
- Condition : Very Good
- Category : Fiction - Humorous Fiction
- Published : 2020 (This Edition 2021 - John Murray)
- ISBN : 9781529304220
- SKU : B003221
- PPC : LL300gm
- RRP : £8.99
- Quantity Available : 1 only.
External Reviews
'Milkman meets Derry Girls. A cracking read' - Sinead Moriarty.
'A thrillingly fresh, provocative and touching voice' - Marian Keyes.
'Bawdy yet beautiful, full of everyday tragedy, absurdity and truth. I grew extraordinarily attached to Majella' - Sara Baume.
'Gallen's debut deserves comparisons with Anna Burns' Milkman for its depiction of the impact of the Troubles on a vulnerable young woman but this terrifically imagined tender black comedy is very much its own book.' - Metro.
'Charming . . . there is an easy warmth to Big Girl, Small Town.' - Sunday Times.
'Gallen's unrelenting eye for the bizarre and Coughlan's talent for deadpanning make it an absolute winner.' - Financial Times.
'Sensational . . . Gallen's effortless immersion into a gritty, endlessly bittersweet world packs a dizzying punch.' - Publishers Weekly.
'An irreverent portrait of small-town Northern Ireland that is both bleakly and uproariously funny.'- Kirkus.
'Majella is a nuanced and complicated heroine, reliant on routines and largely dismissive of change. Infused with local diction, inflection, and slang, her voice envelops readers in the sounds of small-town Ireland.' - Booklist.
'Majella is a compelling character caught in a fascinating slice of time, and her journey is exquisitely rendered. With echoes of Gail Honeyman's Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine crossed with the 1990s-set British sitcom Derry Girls, this debut is recommended for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh, Emma Donoghue, and Sally Rooney.' - Library Journal.
'Hugely charming.' - Irish Independent.
'An inventively foulmouthed gem of a novel . . . a novel that is, above all, an intimate portrait of a peculiar - and peculiarly resilient - woman who is fated to notice everything and forget nothing.' - Wall Street Journal.
'An immensely lovable debut novel.' - Washington Post.
'Gallen's darkly comic debut is an unforgettable portrait of a young woman whose rich internal life offers a brilliantly observed commentary on her bleak surroundings.' - Daily Mail.
The Author
Michelle Gallen was born in Tyrone in the 1970s and grew up during the Troubles a few miles from what she was told was the “Free” State and the “United” Kingdom. She studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin and won several prestigious prizes as a young writer before a devastating brain injury in her mid-twenties. Michelle's debut Big Girl, Small Town is being adapted for TV by BBC production company Lookout Point and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, an Irish Book Award, the Comedy Women in Print Award and Kate O'Brien Award. It was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje prize. Her second novel, Factory Girls, will be published in the UK, Ireland and USA in 2022. She lives in Dublin with her husband and kids.