A Swift Pure Cry (2006)

Posted on: 06/09/11 BY admin

“Written with a fluent, lyrical sprightliness, this poignant novel invests tragic events with humanity and even, in places, humour” The Sunday Times

After Shell’s mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with her school friend Declan.

But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and at the centre of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.

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A Swift Pure Cry is published by David Fickling Books, an imprint of Random House.

Rights Enquiries

Hilary Delamere at The Agency (London) Ltd handles all rights in Siobhan’s books please contact her at : hd-office@theagency.co.uk

Foreign Editions:

A Swift Pure Cry is available in the following translations:

German- Carlsen Verlag
French- Gallimard Jeunesse
Hungarian- People Team Publishing
Italian- Adriano Salani
Lithuanian- Gimtasis Zodis
Dutch- Van Gennep
Portuguese- Ediouro Publicacioes

UK Awards & Credits

Winner of the Branford Boase Award 2007

Winner of the Bisto Book Awards 2007 (Ellis Dillon Award)

Winner of the Sheffield Children’s Book Award 2006

Shortlisted for the CBI Bisto Book of the Year 2007

Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal  2007

Shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize 2007

Shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Children’s Award 2006

Shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2006