Lullabies for Little Criminals

(Paperback)

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Description

'Like Angela Carter, she is relentlessly inventive' Sunday Times

'Full of pathos, spirit and iridescent innocence' Independent on Sunday

The first novel by the author of The Lonely Hearts Hotel

12-year-old Baby is used to turmoil in her life. Her mother is long dead, her father is a junkie and they shuttle between rotting apartments and decrepit downtown hotels.

As her father's addiction and paranoia grow worse, she begins a journey that will lead her through chaos and hardship; but Baby's remarkable strength of spirit enables her to survive. Smart, funny and determined to lift herself off the city's dirty streets, she knows that the only person she can truly rely upon is herself.

Reviews

O'Neill's vivid prose owes a debt to Donna Tartt's The Little Friend... Baby's precocious introspection feels pitch perfect... Tear-jerkingly effective - Publishers' WeeklyA remarkable novel that could turn out to be huge... the very rich descriptions of a tumultuous young life and emotional reaction to each new situation add up to a cracking good read - Publishing New...dreamy prose...Baby's unique voice and the glimmer of hope provided by her intelligence and imaginative spirit live on in the mind long after you have closed the book - Waterstones Books QuarterlyFrom feisty little Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird to Sissy Spacek's blank-eyed Holly in the film Badlands, Heather O'Neill draws on the annals of knowing child narrators to shape Baby's shabby, scrappy scrabble from broken home to detention centre to pimp's lap and back again. Scabrous humour and brutal insight fairly jolt each episode into life - The Observer

Author Bio

Heather O'Neill is a contributor to this American Life and her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Her childhood was divided between Viriginia and her mother, who wanted nothing to do with her children, and Montreal and her alcoholic father. She now lives in Montreal. Lullabies for Little Criminals is her first novel.