Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English
Weblink
http://www.obrien.ie/the-butterf …

THE BUTTERFLY SHELL

Maureen White

The Butterfly Shell tells the story of Marie as she struggles through her first year at secondary school.

Marie loves reading, hates being tormented by Rachel and her gang, The Secret Six, and isn't sure how she feels about Stella, who is more than a little odd and always repeats the ends of sentences. Things start getting strange when Marie hears a baby crying in the night and is convinced it is her sister who died of cot death before Marie was born. When an accident puts Marie into a coma, things get even stranger and a shell in the shape of a butterfly is found in a most unexpected place. By the end of the year Marie realizes that Stella is a true friend and that sometimes in life the unexplained can in fact happen. Maureen White was born in Canada where she co-founded Toronto's Nightwood Theatre Company. In Canada, she directed award winning shows (The Stone Angel' and Thin Ice') and was one of the initiators of Groundswell, an annual festival of new work by women playwrights. Maureen moved to Ireland in 1988 where she has worked as a director, teacher, writer and dramaturg. She is the First Year Acting Teacher at the Gaiety School of Acting and is also the dramaturg for Rough Magic Theatre Company, working with writers on the development of new plays. Maureen lives in Dublin with her husband and their two children.

Available products
Book Published by The O'Brien Press

Comments

lyrically written and thoughtful debut'

Marie's feelings are beautifully and sensitively conveyed; the reader really feels part of the story and sympathises throughout'

As the story evolves it becomes clear that her powers of observation and perception are not limited to mere topographical matters. Her insights into the complexities of young female friendships and rivalries, and of how both are affected by home and school environments, are conveyed with sharpness and precision ... all the more striking for not resorting to the melodrama or sensationalism that we might have expected in a narrative that details a young girl's experimentation with self-harm the overall delicacy of her approach matches that of the abalone shell that gives her novel its title'

a beautifully written debut novel will appeal to late primary school pupils' InTouch

A coming-of-age story about discovering who you are...I found it a very poignant book and felt it captured very well the emotions of being an early teen and feeling vulnerable'

if ever an author got to the very kernel of how so-called normal' people become targets for bullies, then Maureen White is that author a book that demands to be devoured as it spins towards a weird, wonderful ending'