Snowflake

Wonderful' Roddy Doyle'Sparks with tender charm and humour . . . Fresh, bleakly funny' Sunday Times'Sharp, clever and affecting' - The Independent'GAS and beautiful and truthful and touching' Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups'A novel for anyone who's ever felt lost in the world' John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies'Astonishing' Stacey Halls, author of The FamiliarsEighteen-year-old Debbie White lives on a dairy farm with her mother, Maeve, and her uncle, Billy. Billy sleeps out in a caravan in the garden with a bottle of whiskey and the stars overhead for company. Maeve spends her days recording her dreams, which she believes to be prophecies.This world is Debbie's normal, but she is about to step into life as a student at Trinity College in Dublin. As she navigates between sophisticated new friends and the family bubble, things begin to unravel. Maeve's eccentricity tilts into something darker, while Billy's drinking gets worse. Debbie struggles to cope with the weirdest, most difficult parts of herself, her family and her small life. But the fierce love of the White family is never in doubt, and Debbie discovers that even the oddest of families are places of safety.A startling, honest, laugh and cry novel about growing up and leaving home, only to find that you've taken it with you, Snowflake is a novel for a generation, and for everyone who's taken those first, terrifying steps towards adulthood.