Tatty: Dublin One City, One Book edition
Tatty: Dublin One City, One Book edition
By Christine Dwyer Hickey
Published to huge acclaim, Christine Dwyer Hickey’s Tatty was hailed by the critics as a masterpiece, and went on to become a bestseller. With the brutal clarity and touching honesty of a child, Tatty tells the story of her alcoholic family. Now chosen as the Dublin One City One Book for 2020, we can look forward to events throughout 2020 celebrating the book.
B-format, paperback | 208pp | ISBN 9781848407619 | Release Date: February 2020
Christine Dwyer Hickey’s Tatty is a devastating yet hilarious depiction of a troubled Dublin family told in the vibrant, charismatic voice of the little girl lost within it. With brutal honesty, Tatty tells the story of her beloved but feckless dad, her tormented mam and her five siblings, including her sister with special needs. As she grows up, Tatty becomes ever more aware of the strange reality of her home life, and the damage wrought by alcohol on her family. First published in 2004, Tatty became a bestseller and is a modern Irish masterpiece that is tragic, funny and utterly unsentimental.
Praise for Tatty:
“ Christine Dwyer Hickey’s fourth novel, Tatty, beautiful and heartbreaking, confirms that her skills are perfected, and her exceptional talent is far from exhausted. Such is Hickey’s power that, as a reader, you’ll soon feel that you have become the very necessary person for Tatty - someone who knows everything about her, and longs to protect her. And when the book ends so suddenly that you feel you are abandoning her, the effect is shattering. Tatty devastates in a way that only the most unsentimental novels can.”
“A bare, lyrical story of a Dublin childhood that will rank among the very best of Irish books this year. It’s not easy to make writing seem this simple. Like all good stories, it never judges itself, and so it remains open, charming, dignified, even when the subject matter drifts towards the harrowing. A really fine book, evocative of a not-so-distant past.”
“The intricacies of class are brilliantly observed through the eyes of a distressed child. [The] achievement is the creation of Tatty’s voice, a voice that guides the reader through this world from the child’s limited perspective...Dwyer Hickey successfully juxtaposes the ordinary and the extraordinary.”
“Dwyer Hickey’s mastery of the child’s voice is spectacular and her acute understanding of the mentality of children leads to some hilarious moments.”
“Dwyer Hickey sets the scene beautifully. A poignant humour permeates the pages of this excellent novel. In the wrong hands Tatty could have been a gratuitously violent read. That it retains a quiet dignity is testament to the skill of this author. A thought-provoking, insightful read, Tatty is beautifully produced by New Island.”
“Dwyer Hickey gives Tatty a fragile resilience: deeply damaged, she still feels that she must be strong. It makes for authentic fiction.”
“Tatty is a book that will haunt you long after you’ve turned the last page. The author vividly evokes the simplicity of childhood, so much so that the reader can identify freely with Tatty despite her disturbing situation. The book is not without its lighter moments, and the humour is much needed. This is not only an entertaining tale but a heartbreaking account of a disturbed childhood that makes for compulsive reading.”
“ The strength of this book lies in the heartbreaking honesty of its child narrator’s voice. Deceptively simple and impossible to put down, Tatty is a powerful, tragic tale of a disintegrating family that’s sparse but very well-written. Messages floated up between the lines as much as the words spoke for themselves, so much so that tears were shed more than once. A power-house of a book. ”
