Tatty

Christine Dwyer Hicks

From Shelf: The 2005 Women's Prize for Fiction Longlist

With the brutal clarity and touching honesty of a child, Tatty tells the story of her alcoholic family, painting a portrait of a disintegrating family, and the child lost within it. This tragic novel takes the reader on a journey into the mind of a small girl.

Hailed by the critics as a masterpiece, Tatty is a devastating, yet hilarious, depiction of a troubled Dublin family told through the lively, charismatic voice of a little girl.With brutal honesty, Tatty tells the story of her life with her beloved, feckless Dad, her tormented Mam, her five siblings and the booze that brings them down. This not just an entertaining tale, but also a heartbreaking account of a disturbed childhood that makes for compulsive reading.