James Stephens

The Charwoman's Daughter James Stephens

A strange wistful story of sixteen-year-old Mary, the only child of her fiercely protective, widowed mother. Mary and her mother live in a one-room tenement flat that is home to the rituals of their bitter love. By day her mother cleans the houses of the Dublin rich, while Mary makes observations as she walks through the city. The imaginitive richness of her insight makes the city come alive as a place that is both strange and wonderful, remote yet friendly. It is this sense of discovery and the bittersweet richness it brings with it that makes this such an unusual but compelling Dublin novel.-Dr. Patricia McManus