The No1 Ethical retailer for Books, CD’s, DVD’s & Games
30 Day Refund Guarantee

Lullabies for Little Criminals

Lullabies for Little Criminals

by Heather O'Neill (Author), Patricia Rodriguez (Reader)

  • Used

    Paperback 2008

    $3.32

  • Used

    Paperback 2008

    $3.32

  • New

    Paperback 2006

    $19.74
Synopsis

Baby is twelve years old. Her mother died not long after she was born and she lives in a string of seedy flats in Montreal's red light district with her father Jules, who takes better care of his heroin addiction than he does of his daughter. Jules is an intermittent presence and a constant source of chaos in Baby's life - the turmoil he brings with him and the wreckage he leaves in his wake. Baby finds herself constantly re-adjusting to new situations, new foster homes, new places, new people, all the while longing for stability and a 'normal' life. But Baby has a gift - the ability to find the good in people, a genius for spinning stories and for cherishing the small crumbs of happiness that fall into her lap. She is bright, smart, funny and observant about life on the dirty streets of a city and wise enough to realise salvation rests in her own hands.

$3.32

Save:$9.47 (74%)

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 384
 Publisher: riverrun
Published: 03 Jul 2008
ISBN 10: 1847243932
ISBN 13: 9781847243935
Prizes: Winner of Canada Reads 2007. Shortlisted for Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2008.

Media Reviews
Told with shafts of wit and a lightness of touch which few novels on such themes achieve. Baby, like Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye, is totally believable. Although few people suffer a childhood like hers, everyone can identify with her feelings, on the threshold of adolescence longing for stability and recognition * Times Literary Supplement *
From feisty little Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird to Sissy Spacek's blank-eyed Holly in the film Badlands, Heather O'Neill draws on the annals of knowing child narrators to shape Baby's shabby, scrappy scrabble from broken home to detention centre to pimp's lap and back again. Scabrous humour and brutal insight fairly jolt each episode into life * Observer *
Vivid and poignant . . . O'Neill's novel builds to a riveting climax . . . deeply moving * Independent *
O'Neill bombards the reader with piercing observations and magical imagery . . . Her story is bleak, yet not bitter; full of pathos, spirit and, overwhelmingly, an iridescent innocence * Independent on Sunday *
O'Neill's vivid prose owes a debt to Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. Baby's precocious introspection feels pitch perfect. Tear-jerkingly effective * Publishers Weekly *
Dreamy prose . . . Baby's unique voice and the glimmer of hope provided by her intelligence and imaginative spirit live on in the mind long after you have closed the book * Waterstones Book Quarterly *
Heather O'Neill's style is laced with so much sublime possibility and merciless actuality that it makes me think of comets and live wires * Helen Oyeyemi *
...dreamy prose...Baby's unique voice and the glimmer of hope provided by her intelligence and imaginative spirit live on in the mind long after you have closed the book - Waterstones Books Quarterly * Waterstone's Books Quarterly *
...vivid and poignant...a deeply moving and troubling novel - Independent * Independent *
From feisty little Scout of To Kill a Mockingbird to Sissy Spacek's blank-eyed Holly in the film Badlands, Heather O'Neill draws on the annals of knowing child narrators to shape Baby's shabby, scrappy scrabble from broken home to detention centre to pimp's lap and back again. Scabrous humour and brutal insight fairly jolt each episode into life - The Observer * Observer *
O'Neill's vivid prose owes a debt to Donna Tartt's The Little Friend... Baby's precocious introspection feels pitch perfect... Tear-jerkingly effective - Publishers' Weekly * Publisher's weekly *
A remarkable novel that could turn out to be huge... the very rich descriptions of a tumultuous young life and emotional reaction to each new situation add up to a cracking good read - Publishing News * Publishing News *
Author Bio
Heather O'Neill is a novelist, poet, short-story writer, screenwriter, and essayist. Lullabies for Little Criminals, her debut novel, was published in 2007 to international critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her second novel, The Girl who was Saturday Night, was longlisted for the Baileys Women's Fiction Prize, and shortlisted for the Giller Prize, as was her collection of short stories, Daydreams of Angels. Her third novel, The Lonely Hearts Hotel was longlisted for the Baileys prize. Born and raised in Montreal, O'Neill lives there today with her daughter.