It’s been two months since 14-year-old Orla’s mother died of cancer, and the girl isn’t coping. Neither is her father. While he self-medicates with booze, she plots her escape, to her aunt’s in Northern Ireland, where her mum is buried:
I am sad to go but it is time now and there is no point in hanging around any longer. I leave my phone under the pillow. I don’t leave a note because that is just for suicides. I don’t want to make them sadder than they will be anyway but I also don’t want them coming for me straight away.
We are plunged from the outset into Orla’s head and her anguish.
Walls is a poet, who has translated Heidegger’s poetical works. In this debut novel, his punctuation-light approach to prose creates a raw stream of consciousness that neatly captures the angst of teenage grief and isolation.
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