A Swift Pure Cry - Tapa dura

IRELAND 1984

After Shell's mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, charming, eloquent and persuasive. But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the centre of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.

This is a story of love and loss, religious belief and spirituality - it will move the hearts of any who read it.

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 Shell to care for her younger brother and sister. She'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.

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