The Joyce Girl

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What to expect

James Joyce was her father. Samuel Beckett was her lover. This is her story. A mesmerising fictionalisation of Lucia Joyce's life told for the first time.

Paris, 1928. Avant-garde Paris is buzzing with the latest ideas in art, music and literature from artists such as Ford Madox Ford and Zelda Fitzgerald. Lucia, the talented and ambitious daughter of controversial genius James Joyce, is making her name as a dancer. But when Lucia falls passionately in love with budding writer (and fellow Irish expat) Samuel Beckett he is banned from the Joyce family home.

1934. Her life in tatters, Lucia is sent to pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung. For years she has kept quiet. Now she decides to speak.

Profoundly moving and stunningly written, The Joyce Girl brings to light the untold tale of Lucia Joyce. It will entrance and educate you. You will fall in love with this compelling woman, but she will break your heart too.

Critics Review

  • A hugely impressive debut. Annabel Abbs has brought to life an extraordinary cast of characters – Joyce, Beckett et al. – and painted their rackety, bohemian world in vivid technicolour.

    The Observer

  • Here is a powerful portrait of a young woman yearning to be an artist, whose passion for life and rage at being unable to fulfil her talent burns from the pages.

    The Guardian

  • Funny, clever, tragic, poignant

    The Australian Women's Weekly

  • This intimate and absolutely splendid novel must top my recommendations as the best 20th-century fiction of the year

    Historical Novel Society

  • An absorbing read about the perils of genius. You’ll like this book if you enjoy thoughtful historical fiction that transports you to another time and place.

    New Zealand Women's Weekly

  • Avant-garde Paris in the 1920s bursts onto the page in this gripping fictionalisation of an extraordinary life.

    Who Weekly

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