Paula Spencer
By Roddy Doyle

I particularly love reading about people getting through life. This is a book like that. Paula Spencer is a recovering alcoholic and mother of four, and she is just getting by, day by day. This middle-aged Irishwoman's voice is so true—the things she thinks and says and chooses not to say—even the most unfamiliar parts of her life ache like my own tooth. And Roddy Doyle doles out the hope so sparingly that eventually you stop craving the miraculously redemptive ending. At which point you are ready for the truth.