"Eimear McBride's debut tells, with astonishing insight and in brutal detail, the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. Not so much a stream of consciousness, as an unconscious railing against a life that makes little sense, and a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerable and isolated protagonist, to read A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing is to plunge inside its narrator's head, experiencing her world first-hand. This isn't always comfortable - but it is always a revelation.
Touching on everything from family violence to sexuality and the personal struggle to remain intact in times of intense trauma, McBride writes with singular intensity, acute sensitivity and mordant wit. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing is moving, funny – and alarming. It is a book you will never forget.
Eimear McBride was born in Liverpool but moved to Ireland when she was three. She grew up in Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo and Castlebar, Co. Mayo, before moving to London aged 17 to study at The Drama Centre. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing is her first novel.
"Eimear McBride is a writer of remarkable power and originality." (David Collard, The Times Literary Supplement)
"McBride's story-telling is heartfelt and frank and the experience of reading her work is unforgettable." (Esther Press, We Love This Book.)
"A remarkable achievement." (John Boland, Irish Independent)
"This is a simply brilliant book... emotionally raw and at the same time technically astounding. McBride’s prose is as haunting and moving as music, and the love story at the heart of the novel – between a sister and brother – as true and wrenching as any in literature. I can't recommend it highly enough." (Elizabeth McCracken)