Big Girl, Small Town

Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award.

Stuff Majella knows

• God doesn't punish men with baldness for wearing ladies' knickers
• Banana-flavoured condoms taste the same as nutrition shakes
• Not everyone gets a volley of gunshots over their grave as they are being lowered into the ground

Stuff Majella doesn't know

• That she is autistic
• Why her ma drinks
• Where her da is

Other people find Majella odd. She keeps herself to herself, she doesn't like gossip and she isn't interested in knowing her neighbours' business. But suddenly everyone in the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up wants to know all about hers.

Since her da disappeared during the Troubles, Majella has tried to live a quiet life with her alcoholic mother. She works in the local chip shop (Monday-Saturday, Sunday off), wears the same clothes every day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, nuked in the microwave) and binge watches Dallas (the best show ever aired on TV) from the safety of her single bed. She has no friends and no boyfriend, and Majella thinks things are better that way.

But Majella's safe and predictable existence is shattered when her grandmother dies, and as much as she wants things to go back to normal, Majella comes to realise that maybe there is more to life. And it might just be that from tragedy comes Majella's one chance at escape.