Paula Spencer

Description

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

Roddy Doyle was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of nine acclaimed novels, one collection of short stories and Rory & Ita, a memoir about his parents. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. His last book, The Dead Republic, was the final volume in the Henry Smart trilogy.

[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 *