Product Description

After Shell's mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28041 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
Fifteen-year-old Shell Talent's life has been spiraling downward. Her father's drinking keeps him out of work, and her family firmly rooted in poverty. After the death of her mother, she's left to care for her younger brother and sister. With the recent arrival of a young priest named Father Rose to Shell's remote Irish town, she discovers solace in renewed piety and spirituality though his powerful sermons. Though when Shell makes a pivotal choice, she finds herself pregnant and embroiled in a town-wide scandal. Shell must then overcome and persevere though her tragic circumstances; though trite-sounding, Shell's story closes with a remarkably upbeat conclusion. Inspired by real events, Shell's voice is palpably heartbreaking and honest; and her situation evokes immediate pathos from the reader. Set in the mid-1980s in Ireland, Dowd successfully characterizes Ireland as an integral part of the story. Told through flowing eloquent prose, with strong Joycean influences, this engrossing and haunting tale will not let the reader go. (Fiction. YA) (Kirkus Reviews)

Julia Eccleshare, lovereading4kids.co.uk, April 4, 2006
A superb first novel, beautifully written, deeply moving and full of heartbreak.

The Irish Post, February 15, 2006
Brilliant and heartbreaking... this story will have you hooked.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
Having read the other books by her, I was keen to read this one, plus my friend thought it was amazing. I got through it quickly, partly because I wanted it to end or get better. It ended. But it didn't get better.

I feel the key problem to the story was that none of the characters were particularly likable. Shell annoyed me with her ignorance and stupidity- why didn't she get a job? run away with her siblings? And what was the appeal in that Declan Ronan?!! So the fatal issues were no likeable characters, never being able to agree with the main characters decisions and some parts were just weird... Like when she delivered the baby-What was that about?!!!

A lovely book
I read this book last year as part of the Carnegie Award with two of my friends. We each had to choose a book randomly out of a carrier bag and I ended up with this one. I'm so glad that I did! The cover is beautiful and the story itself is lovely. After the award finished I went to my local library to find the book so that I could read it again I loved it that much! I would recommend the book to anyone, young or old.

Best book I've read this year so far!
This book is amazing. From the opening page, the author is able to transfix and captivate the reader. The tale is told by a heart moving heroine, shell, who has a troubled life. The way Dowd is able to draw sympathy from the reader for the heroine adn her brother and sister is magnificent.
The tale is a beautiful one, with a moving portrait captured of life in a small Irish catholic village, and the problems associated by the insular life this entails.
This book actually moved me to tears.
Marvellous.