Anna Fitzgerald: Girl in the Making

Jean Kennedy is a gentle, perceptive girl growing up in a very strange world: suburban Dublin in the 1970s and ’80s. In the company of her mother, her Aunty Ida, and her little brother Baby John F., Jean experiences love and joy. But home is not a safe place, and Jean is unequal and unprotected. When she speaks just one small part of the truth, she must quickly learn to navigate the dangers and possibilities of a world she scarcely understands.

Jean’s hypnotic, unsparing and ultimately hopeful voice captures the dreams and terrors of girlhood in a brutally hypocritical world, and narrates her encounters with better ways of being. Through it all, Jean’s voice pulsates with life and passion.

‘I felt desperate for quiet, birdlike Jean to find her external voice, and when she does it does not disappoint. It is angry, wry, at times merciless, and I wish there was more of it, but only because I like her so much. This is a character that truly lives.’ The Guardian