A toddler has gone missing on a council estate in London. Tom, a tabloid journalist, gets the whiff of a story that she may have been killed by another child, Lucy Green, the daughter of a young Irishwoman, Carmel. But Carmel is sunk in the misery of her first and only love affair in Waterford, which left her pregnant. She has never bonded with her daughter, seeing her as ‘a tiny, rabid, black-haired demon from hell’ and has remained obsessed by her erotic passion for her ex. Tom is equally obsessed by his need to get the big story that will make his name – even if it may not be true.
Megan Nolan, one of the new wave of strikingly talented young Irish writers, has spun Ordinary Human Failings around suffering, responsibility and lies. Carmel’s unplanned pregnancy has forced the Green family to leave Waterford for London.
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