Description

Ten years on from The Woman Who Walked into Doors, Booker Prize-winning author, Roddy Doyle, returns to one of his greatest characters, Paula Spencer.

Paula Spencer is turning forty-eight, and hasn’t had a drink for four months and five days. Her youngest children, Jack and Leanne, are still living with her. They’re grand kids, but she worries about Leanne.

Paula still works as a cleaner, but all the others doing the job seem to come from Eastern Europe. You can get a cappuccino in the cafe and the checkout girls are all Nigerian. Ireland is certainly changing, but then so too is Paula – dry, and determined to put her family back together again.

‘A phenomenally rewarding read… Could not be bettered in its depiction of the minutiae of the life of a recovering alcoholic: relentless, trivial, terrified’ Observer

Publisher Review

[A] marvellous novel -- Carmen Callil * Financial Times * Roddy Doyle has done the impossible - he has made Paula Spencer even more unforgettable the second time round * The Times * [A] magnificent achievement * Guardian * Doyle has created a little masterwork, a gem of persuasive realism -- Tom Adair * Scotland on Sunday * An intoxicating sequel...a phenomenally rewarding read -- Euan Ferguson * Observer *