A GIRL is a HALF-FORMED THING-Totally Brilliant by British Author E McBride

Eimear McBride (b. Britian 1976) to Irish parents has written a 1st novel that is shattering in its ingenious literary style and an excruciating painful tale.  One of the most acclaimed novels of 2014, A GIRL…won the Inaugural Goldsmith Prize, the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, the Kerry Gray Irish Fiction Award and numerous others honors bestowed on this heartbreakingly written story told from the 1st person of an Irish girl, who remains nameless and gives voice to her relgious fearing mother, her mentally challenged older, beloved brother and the uncle who sexually abuses her starting at age 13.  Girl is a free spirit set adrift seeking refuge and love wherever she may find it.  "Who I am. And I'm from someplace so much littler than this. Redneck culchi. Backward. Farmyard. I am all these things…Come don't hate me…New girl stinks."  Unfortunately, this vulnerability leads her down a path where sexual promiscuity, alcohol & drug abuse serve as escape and relief.  She dearly loves her older brother.  His cancer surgery resulted in brain damage.  She serves as his protector while absorbing all the shame and abuse aimed at him.  Her single working mother is emotionally crazed, cold-hearted and directs all her energy towards religious fervor.  McBride's  unique voice puts us inside the young girl's head and establishes the disturbing events as they unfold.  This is a harsh coming of age story for a girl with few options, no guidance and abuse misinterpreted as kindness. It is about grief, pain and religious hypocrisy.  McBride's eloquence puts her in the literary circle of Joyce & O'Brien with her own contemporary sensibility.  A GIRL is a HALF-FORMED THING is a ferocious, virtuoso debut heralding in a stunning voice in literary fiction.