Longlisted for the National Book Award 2014 Someone begins on the stoop of a Bro
oklyn apartment building where Marie is waiting for her father to come home from
work. It is the 1920s and in her Irish-American enclave the stories of her neig
hbours unfold before her short-sighted eyes. As the years pass Marie's own histo
ry plays out against the backdrop of a changing world.
This is the story of o
ne life in all its devastating pains and unexpected joys; its bursts of brillian
t clarity and moments of profound confusion. Fragments of a curious childhood, o
f adolescent sexual awakenings, of motherhood and, finally, old age are pieced t
ogether in this resonant tale of an unremarkable, unforgettable woman.
