Jimmy and Trix were sleeping

Jimmy and Trix were sleeping. Softly she drew the bottom bolt across the door, changed into her nightdress and got under the covers. She cuddled up to herself, listening to the sing-song breathing in the dark. Soon her mind was full of rainbows and lightning strikes… Father Rose was driving Jezabel over the cliff roads into the sky. Declan was tugging her by the arm to the top of Duggans' field. 'Would you, Shell, or wouldn't you?' She slept.

For fifteen-year-old Shell Talent, life has been hard since the death of her mam. Her dad has given up work and turned his back on reality, leaving her to care for her younger brother and sister. Shell's bored of church and regularly skips school. With her friends Bridie and Declan, she shares cigarettes and irreverent jokes.

But when Father Rose, a new young priest, arrives in her small Irish community, something mysteriously shifts. Mam's spirit seems to return to earth, a kindly ghost. Shell tries on the old pink satin dress hidden at the back of Dad's wardrobe - to strange, disturbing effect.

Soon Shell finds herself the centre of an escalating scandal that rocks Coolbar to its foundations and has repercussions across the country. All her courage and strength is needed to face the ordeal, in this magnificent and heartbreaking novel, inspired by a true story.

Back flap Bio:

Siobhan Dowd is married and lives in Oxford. She was born in London to Irish parents, but in her youth spent much time in the family homes in County Waterford, then Wicklow town. Today she visits friends and relatives in Ireland as often as she can. During a seven-year spell living in New York City, she was named one of the 'top 100 Irish-Americans' by Irish America magazine for her global anti-censorship work with the writers' organisation, PEN.

This is her first novel.

Last updated Feb. 2006 (c) Siobhan Dowd 2006