Eimear McBride's debut tells, with astonishing insight and in brutal detail, the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. Not so much a stream of consciousness, as an unconscious railing against a life that makes little sense, and a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerable and isolated protagonist, to read A Girl is a Half-formed Thing is to plunge inside its narrator's head, experiencing her world first-hand. This isn't always comfortable - but it is always a revelation.

Touching on everything from family violence to sexuality and the personal struggle to remain intact in times of intense trauma, McBride writes with singular intensity, acute sensitivity and mordant wit. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing is moving, funny – and alarming. It is a book you will never forget.

Praise for A Girl is a Half-formed Thing

Eimear McBride is a writer of remarkable power and originality. -- David Collard, The Times Literary Supplement

McBride's story-telling is heartfelt and frank and the experience of reading her work is unforgettable. -- Esther Press, We Love This Book

A remarkable achievement. -- John Boland, Irish Independent

This is a simply brilliant book … emotionally raw and at the same time technically astounding. McBride's prose is as haunting and moving as music, and the love story at the heart of the novel – between a sister and brother – as true and wrenching as any in literature. I can't recommend it highly enough. -- Elizabeth McCracken