Written with a fluent, lyrical sprightliness, this poigniant 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 accross the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.
A Swift Pure Cry is published by David Fickling Books, an imprint of Random House.
UK Awards & Cresits
2007 Branford Boase Award – winner
2007 Bisto Book Awards – Eilis Dillon Award – winner
2007 CBI Bisto Book of the Year – shortlisted
2007 Carnegie Medal – shortlisted
2007 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize – shortlisted
2007 – Sheffield Children’s Book Award – winner
2006 Guardian Fiction Children’s Award – shortlisted
2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize – shortlisted
Foreign Editions
A Swift Pure Cry has been sold in the following territories:
Brazil: Ediouro Publicacoes LTDA
France: Editions Gallimard Jeunesse
Germany: Carlsen Verlag gmbh
Hungary: Peopleteam Publishing Ltd
Italy: Adriano Salani Editore
Lithuania: Gimtasis Zodis
Rights Enquiries
All rights enquiries should be forwarded to Hilary Delamere at The Agency (London) Ltd:
hd-office@theagency.co.uk
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