Description
Book Synopsis‘A natural storyteller with a Sedaris-like eye for black humour. There are sharp splinters of comic relief … compelling and nuanced.” Edel Coffey, Irish Times
Quick-witted, charismatic and generous; angry, vicious and hurt; in pubs all over Cork City, Noelle McCarthy's mother Carol rages against her life and everything she has lost. Soon after leaving college, in the early years of the millennium, Noelle flees. Even on the other side of the world, with fame and success within her grasp, Noelle cannot escape an appetite for self-destruction. Life spirals out of control until she too is in danger of losing everything. At thirty, she pulls back from the brink.
Over a decade later, Carol is dying. Finally, it seems, mother and daughter will make peace. Except Carol has no interest in admitting her own mortality - she will die as she lived, entirely on her own terms. If there is any reckoning to be done between past and present, Noelle will be doing it on her own.
Grand is the deeply moving and surprisingly funny outcome of Noelle's yearning to understand her mother, and to make sense of their lives, together and apart. Most of all, it is a dazzlingly honest memoir about becoming a modern woman.
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2023 Non-Fiction Winner at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
‘Exquisitely written … profoundly moving. And like all great memoirs it is hilarious in parts. If, like, me, you love the personal essays of Sinéad Gleeson and Emilie Pine, you’ll adore this’ Sunday Independent
'Desperately funny, hysterically sad, so beautiful and so humane. All of life is in it' Meg Mason
'Hooked me like a fish' New York Times
‘A really vivacious account of frayed family relationships across the decades and around the world’ Financial Times Podcast
Trade ReviewA natural storyteller with a Sedaris-like eye for black humour. There are sharp splinters of comic relief . . . compelling and nuanced -- Edel Coffey * Irish Times *
Desperately funny, hysterically sad, so beautiful and so humane. All of life is in it. I utterly adored it -- Meg Mason
Grand hooked me like a fish . . . a tale of recovery and growth [and] deep, deep love * New York Times *
Exquisitely written . . . profoundly moving. And like all great memoirs it is hilarious in parts. If, like me, you love the personal essays of Sinéad Gleeson and Emilie Pine, you'll adore this * Sunday Independent *
A really vivacious account of frayed family relationships across decades and around the world * Financial Times *
Remarkably funny, honest and often sad . . . there's a whole pile of un-maudlin heart and a whole lot of love here * Sunday Independent *
A searingly honest memoir, as close to the bone as it is to the heart -- Maia Dunphy
Deeply moving and surprisingly funny * Irish Examiner *
I loved it! The writing is stunning. Noelle McCarthy has an incredible knack for sharing the darkest of memories with a lightness of touch. You won't want to put this book down, but once you do, every gorgeous word will haunt you. Beautiful and compelling -- Tara Flynn
Savagely brilliant * Business Post *
A fierce and sometimes hilarious reflection on the maddening endurance of love between mother and daughter. McCarthy's prose sparkles in the darkness of addiction, shame, and inherited trauma. I devoured this book -- Aingeala Flannery
Grand is a love story and occasionally a hate story too. A vital, unexpected love letter to family, flaws, and the fact that none of us is perfect. McCarthy writes to remind us that sometimes you have to pull at the threads, perhaps unravel completely, to find your way back to a life a little less undone -- Cristín Leach
An eloquent exploration of generational trauma told with immense wit and candour. Compellingly readable -- Hilary Fannin
A rich, unsettling read - a bit like jumping on a moving train as it speeds through shifting landscapes. Enthralling, unnerving and above all, honest -- Lia Mills
I really loved this book . . . beautifully endearing and candid -- June Caldwell
Humane and wryly funny . . . so readable, relatable and ultimately uplifting -- Elizabeth Boyle
Already acclaimed in New Zealand, it doesn't hold back any punches in describing a difficult relationship with her alcoholic mother (and is insightful about the restraints imposed on an intelligent woman of her mother's generation living in conservative, Catholic Ireland.) * Irish Examiner *
Terrific energy . . . sparkling and evocative -- Alannah Hopkin * Irish Examiner *
