The final novel by the legendary Irish icon Edna O'Brien, author of The Country Girls.'The taboo-breaking, the fabulous prose - there's no one like Edna.' Anne Enright'Girl broke me in two: a hard and beautiful miracle.' Eimear McBride'An extraordinary act of imagination.' J.M. Coetzee'Glittering energy . . . Exemplary.' Colm TóibínI was a girl once, but not any more . . .A young Nigerian woman, barely more than a girl herself, must learn to survive with a child of her own, in a world which seems entirely consumed by madness. As she navigates a landscape of terrors and trials, ruled by Boko Haram, can she find a place of safety within a society blinkered by mistrust and denial?'Astonishing.' New Statesman'Raw and transfixing.' Observer'A masterpiece.' Irish Independent'Mesmerising.' Sunday Times'Devastating and moving.' Daily Telegraph*Winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2020; longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction; shortlisted for the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction; shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2020*

Edna O'Brien wrote more than twenty celebrated works of fiction, including her classic The Country Girls Trilogy, as well as plays and four works of non-fiction, which have been translated internationally into over 30 territories. Her final novel was the acclaimed Girl, which was awarded the Kerry Group Prize for Fiction in 2020. She was the recipient of many awards, including the Irish PEN Lifetime Achievement Award, the American National Arts Gold Medal, the Frank O'Connor Prize, the PEN/Nabokov Award For Achievement in International Literature, and the David Cohen Prize for Literature, as well as being appointed an honorary Dame of the Order of the British Empire in 2018. In 2021, O'Brien was also awarded the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Born and raised in the west of Ireland, she lived in London for many years before her death on 27th July 2024.