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Girl proves that, even in her 89th year, Edna O’Brien remains one of the greatest living prose stylists. The tale of a girl abducted by Nigerian terrorists, this masterly novel refines O’Brien’s signature concern with the social, sexual and religious oppression of women and speaks keenly to the most relevant issues of modern society.
Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020
The new novel by legendary Irish writer Edna O'Brien
Captured, abducted and married into Boko Haram, the narrator of this story witnesses and suffers the horrors of a community of men governed by a brutal code of violence.
Barely more than a girl herself, she must soon learn how to survive as a woman with a child of her own. Just as the world around her seems entirely consumed by madness, bound for hell, she is offered an escape of sorts - but only into another landscape of trials and terrors amidst the unforgiving wilds of northeastern Nigeria, through the forest and beyond; a place where her traumas are met with the blinkered judgement of a society in denial.
How do we love in a world that has lost its moorings? How can we comprehend the barbarism of our enemies, and learn forgiveness for atrocities committed in the name of ideology? Edna O'Brien's new novel pierces to the heart of these questions: and the result is her masterpiece.
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 9780571341184
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 192 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 14 mm
Edition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Profoundly echoes her work of nearly six deacdes ago, the Country Girls Trilogy.' - The Guardian
'In this impeccably written novel, she brings her juristic yet merciful eye to an ever-wider expression of the deep injustices of the female and human circumstance.' - The Financial Times
'Both devastating and moving.' - The Daily Telegraph
'A novel that is hard to read and hard to put down. Hypnotic, lyrical and pulsating with dark energy, Girl is a masterful study of human evil by a writer who is still getting better, It will blast you with its searing, savage beauty.' - The Sunday Times
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“Simply, A MUST READ!”
Thank you to the publishers for this early review copy.
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