About the Author

The final novel by the legendary Irish icon Edna O'Brien, author of The Country Girls.

"The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose - there's no one like Edna." - Anne Enright

"Girl broke me in two: a hard and beautiful miracle." - Eimear McBride

"An extraordinary act of imagination." - J.M. Coetzee

"Glittering energy... Exemplary." - Colm Tóibín

Synopsis

I was a girl once, but not any more...

A young Nigerian woman, barely more than a girl herself, must learn to survive with a child of her own, in a world which seems entirely consumed by madness. As she navigates a landscape of terrors and trials, ruled by Boko Haram, can she find a place of safety within a society blinkered by mistrust and denial?

Astonishing. - New Statesman

Raw and transfixing. - Observer

A masterpiece. - Irish Independent

Mesmerising. - Sunday Times

Devastating and moving. - Daily Telegraph

Awards and Recognition

Winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2020; longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction; shortlisted for the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction; shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2020