Noelle McCarthy, photo by Rebecca Zephyr Thomas
Photo Credit
Noelle McCarthy, photo by Rebecca Zephyr Thomas
Photo Credit
Noelle McCarthy will be in conversation with Mayor Hamish Mcdouall. Copies of grand will be available for sale and signing at the event.
The astonishing debut memoir about mothers and daughters, drinking, birth and loss, running away and homecoming from prize-winning writer and broadcaster Noelle McCarthy. Funny, charismatic and generous; angry, vicious and hurt; in pub lounges all over Cork City, Noelle’s mother Carol rages against her life and everything she’s lost.
As soon as she can, Noelle runs away. All the way to New Zealand, to make a new, different kind of life. But then Mammy gets sick, and it’s time to face everything that’s waiting back home.
From Catholic Ireland in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s to sparkling Auckland in the first years of the new millennium, Grand is a story of the invisible ties that bind us, of bitter legacies handed down through the generations, and of the leap of faith it takes to change them.
An unforgettable other-and-daughter story. Vivid and evocative, it candidly examines the difficulties of growing up with an alcoholic, and in turn, Noelle’s own account of reckoning with alcoholism.
Switching between the past and the present, between Ireland and New Zealand, Grand is a beautifully written literary memoir that announces the arrival of a fresh and vibrant voice in New Zealand writing.
Noelle McCarthy will be in conversation with Mayor Hamish Mcdouall. Copies of grand will be available for sale and signing at the event.
The astonishing debut memoir about mothers and daughters, drinking, birth and loss, running away and homecoming from prize-winning writer and broadcaster Noelle McCarthy. Funny, charismatic and generous; angry, vicious and hurt; in pub lounges all over Cork City, Noelle’s mother Carol rages against her life and everything she’s lost.
As soon as she can, Noelle runs away. All the way to New Zealand, to make a new, different kind of life. But then Mammy gets sick, and it’s time to face everything that’s waiting back home.
From Catholic Ireland in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s to sparkling Auckland in the first years of the new millennium, Grand is a story of the invisible ties that bind us, of bitter legacies handed down through the generations, and of the leap of faith it takes to change them.
An unforgettable other-and-daughter story. Vivid and evocative, it candidly examines the difficulties of growing up with an alcoholic, and in turn, Noelle’s own account of reckoning with alcoholism.
Switching between the past and the present, between Ireland and New Zealand, Grand is a beautifully written literary memoir that announces the arrival of a fresh and vibrant voice in New Zealand writing.