The groundbreaking debut novel that set the world alight, from the beloved great Edna O'Brien.

We want to live. Drink gin. Squeeze into the front of big cars and drive up outside big hotels. We want to go places.

Caithleen is a romantic: she dreams of finding a handsome man who will sweep her away and look after her. Her friend Baba thinks this makes her a right-looking eejit. What she wants is money and glamour. Life. As much of it as she can get.

But neither love nor excitement seem possible in their small village, or their convent school. And when they finally make it to Dublin, they find that home isn't as easy to escape as they thought.

'What novelist in the world can match Edna O'Brien when she explores the human heart? None, I say' Frank McCourt

'Her words just burned through me, alive with feeling and beauty and want.' Eimear McBride

Edna O'Brien wrote more than twenty celebrated works of fiction, as well as plays and four works of non-fiction. She was the recipient of many literary honours, as well as being appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2017 and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2021. Born and raised in the west of Ireland, she lived in London for many years before her death in July 2024.