Grand cover art

Grand

Becoming My Mother’s Daughter

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Quick-witted, charismatic and generous; angry, vicious and hurt; in pubs all over Cork City, Noelle McCarthy's mother Carol rages against her life and everything she's lost.

As soon as she can, in the early years of the millennium, Noelle runs away. All the way to New Zealand. Yet, the demons of the past give chase and Noelle seems fated to throw away her future, just like her mother. Somehow, she gets out of the hole and makes a new life. But then Carol gets sick, and finally it's time to face the past and everything that's waiting back home.

Grand is a dazzlingly honest memoir about becoming a modern woman.

©2023 Noelle McCarthy (P)2023 Penguin Audio Art & Literature Authors Motherhood Parenting & Families Relationships Women

Critic reviews

Desperately funny, hysterically sad, so beautiful and so humane. All of life is in it. I utterly adored it (Meg Mason)
I loved it! The writing is stunning. Noelle McCarthy has an incredible knack for sharing the darkest of memories with a lightness of touch. You won't want to put this book down, but once you do, every gorgeous word will haunt you. Beautiful and compelling (Tara Flynn)
A fierce and sometimes hilarious reflection on the maddening endurance of love between mother and daughter. McCarthy's prose sparkles in the darkness of addiction, shame, and inherited trauma. I devoured this book (Aingeala Flannery)
All stars
Most relevant
The more I listened to this the more I got sucked in to it. Having lived near Shandon and gone to UCC I liked the familiarity of the place names....
It is a very honest, harrowing in places, very funny in places listen. Fair play to Noelle. Wishing her a happy life with her family 😊

Honest , will read (!) again.

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