The Joyce Girl

Description

James Joyce was her father. Samuel Beckett was her lover. This is her story. A mesmerising fictionalisation of Lucia Joyce's life told by award-winning novelist Annabel Abbs 'A powerful portrait of a woman whose passion for life burns from the pages' GUARDIAN Paris, 1928. Avant-garde Paris is buzzing with the latest ideas in art, music and literature from artists such as Ford Madox Ford and Zelda Fitzgerald. Lucia, the talented and ambitious daughter of controversial genius James Joyce, is making her name as a dancer. But when Lucia falls passionately in love with budding writer (and fellow Irish expat) Samuel Beckett he is banned from the Joyce family home. 1934. Her life in tatters, Lucia is sent to pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung. For years she has kept quiet. Now she decides to speak. Profoundly moving and stunningly written, THE JOYCE GIRL brings to light the untold tale of Lucia Joyce. You will fall in love with this compelling woman, but she will break your heart too.

Annabel Abbs lives in London with her husband and four children. Her bestselling debut novel, The Joyce Girl, won the Impress Prize for New Writers and was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award, the Waverton Good Read Award and the Caledonia Novel Award.

A hugely impressive debut. Annabel Abbs has brought to life an extraordinary cast of characters - Joyce, Beckett et al. - and painted their rackety, bohemian world in vivid technicolour. - The Observer Here is a powerful portrait of a young woman yearning to be an artist, whose passion for life and rage at being unable to fulfil her talent burns from the pages. - The Guardian Funny, clever, tragic, poignant - The Australian Women's Weekly This intimate and absolutely splendid novel must top my recommendations as the best 20th-century fiction of the year - Historical Novel Society