A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing cover art

A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

By: Eimear McBride
Narrated by: Eimear McBride
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

About this listen

ONE OF THE SUNDAY TIMES' '25 BEST NOVELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY'

Eimear McBride's award-winning debut is an unforgettable novel from a major new literary talent.

A Girl is a Half-formed Thing tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. It is a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerable and isolated protagonist. The author's spellbinding reading illuminates every nuance of the text with feeling and sympathy.

The listener enters the narrator's head, experiencing her world first hand. This isn't always comfortable - but it is always a revelation

WINNER OF THE BAILEYS WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION, 2014; WINNER OF THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE, 2014

KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR AWARD, 2014; WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE, 2014

©2013 Eimear McBride (P)2014 Faber Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Scary Thought-Provoking Inspiring Tear-jerking

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Wacky Man cover art
Paper Cup cover art
Midwinter cover art
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead cover art
Now You See Me cover art
The Less You Know The Sounder You Sleep cover art
Honour Thy Father cover art
The Confession of Peadar Gibbons cover art
Leviathan cover art
That Eye, The Sky cover art
Pearl cover art
If I Let You Go cover art
Chosen cover art
Why Don't You Stop Talking cover art
Cloudstreet cover art

Critic reviews

"You only need to read the first paragraph of McBride's debut novel to know you are reading something special. She builds up images impressionistically over paragraphs and pages, and her writing has such glorious cadence that it should be read aloud." ( The Times)
"A virtuosic debut: subversive, passionate, and darkly alchemical. Read it and be changed." (Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries)
"Eimear McBride is that old-fashioned thing, a genius... The adventurous reader will find that they have a real book on their hands, a live one, a book that is not like any other... [it] is an instant classic." (Anne Enright, Guardian)
"A writer of remarkable power and originality." (David Collard, Times Literary Supplement)
"A brutal and brilliant debut... This book will arouse powerful emotions in anyone who accords it the respect of reading with attention." (John P. O'Sullivan, Sunday Times Ireland)
"A remarkable achievement." (John Boland, Irish Independent)
"There's an immediacy, an emotional directness as the narrator rails against a frustrating, unfeeling world. Brave, bold, brilliant." ( Daily Mail)
"Ten pages in and all the bells start ringing. It explodes into your chest." (Caitlin Moran)
"Soul-wrenchingly sad." ( Financial Times)
"McBride weaves something dazzling... She set out to pick up the experimental modernist baton from James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, and she has done just that." ( Observer)
"It truly is one of the most extraordinary things I've read in the last year." ( Harper’s Bazaar)
All stars
Most relevant
Despite it being deeply uncomfortable, I was captivated by this book. Incredible audio performance from the author herself - I recommend the audiobook to fully appreciate the style of this book. Not for the faint of heart, due to its merciless honesty, but do give this a read if you appreciate great writing

Ingenious writing- disturbing yet fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Restores faith in the possibility of originality and brilliance. Moving, vivid, compassionate, extraordinarily insightful. And outstandingly read by the author.

Genius

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
trust me it's worth the listen. my advice is to set a side some time to listen as it's Irish author and performance are brilliant. it takes a moment to get into the sway. but there is the deep and loving sad story of this young girl.

authentic work.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
An amazing performance of a disturbing stream of consciousness tale of one girl's growth in small town Ireland. Horribly real.

Disturbing, compulsive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
First off, this I think must best be read on Audible by the author herself. As hard as it is to listen to, I'm sure it's harder work to read and interpret. This is how it is meant to be experienced.

I have never read a book quite so triggering or that made me feel so physically sick. I pushed through, but several times I wanted to stop for feeling so nauseated, yet so compelled to read on that I lay in bed till the afternoon listening, ignoring my To Do list, and eventually putting it all off till next day, emotionally battered by the experience.

When he apologised to his mam and sister, the tears sprang to my eyes with such hot, sudden physical pain that I had to squeeze my eyes shut, and rub them.

This is written in a staccato way that is so totally unlike anything I have ever read, yet so universally understood and empathised by women, or maybe all humans - I can't speak for men - it is truly a work of an exceptional writer, and utterly worthy of the Women's Prize for Fiction. Yet nothing could compel me to read it a second time. I still have the lump in my throat 4 hours later.

Visceral & triggering

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews