sharing views and reviews on books in East Renfrewshire
Breslin: Divided City
A young man lies bleeding in the street.
It’s Glasgow. And it’s May – the marching season. The Orange Walks have begun.
Graham doesn’t want to be involved. He just wants to play football with his new mate, Joe. But then he witnesses a shocking moment of violence …
A gripping tale about two boys who [...]
Things are never dull in the O’Connell family. Still, Fiona, squeezed between her quite brother and her mischievous line-dancing twin sisters, thinks life in their tenement flat is far less interesting than Emily Bronte’s.
But tragedy is not confined to Victorian novels. And life for Fiona in this happy domestic set-up is about to change forever. Following [...]
Anne Marie’s Da, a Glaswegian painter and decorator, has always been game for a laugh. So when he first takes up meditation at the Buddhist Centre, no one takes him seriously (especially when his pursuit of the new lama ends in a trip round the Carmunnock bypass). But as Jimmy becomes more involved in a [...]
Maureen O’Donnell wasn’t born lucky. A psychiatric patient and survivor of sexual abuse, she’s stuck in a dead-end job and a secretive relationship with Douglas, a shady therapist. Her few comforts are making up stories to tell her psychiatrist, the company of friends, and the sweet balm of whisky. She is about to end her [...]