Welcome to Litsy!

An Irish family relocates to London during in the 90s. The book begins with the tragic death of a child, who happened to be playing with Lucy, the youngest member of the family. While of course this is horrific, it was written in a way that wasn‘t too much for me. The real story here is the uncovered secrets and backstory of the family. And the journalist investigating. Generational trauma and dealing with the hand one‘s dealt.

The Green family have moved from Ireland to London for reasons unknown, their neighbours are suspicious of them. Then a toddler is found dead, and suspicion falls on the Greens, and specifically 10-year-old Lucy. Enter a tabloid journalist keen to mark his mark. Rather than the expected drama this is a thoughtful and gently done character study of, well, ordinary human failings. Overall I found it hopeful and lovely, despite the subjects tackled.

“Trying would be their life‘s work.”

So very good! 💔How can we recover from our mistakes, even those most ordinary of human failings? We all think we‘re special in or miseries and joys. But are we?

January 2025 Reads: 11 books. Most favorite was Incidents Around The House. Loved the audio with the kid narrator voice. Not so into Ordinary Human Failings.

My copy of this book includes an interview with the author in which she says “The part of inequality, economic and otherwise, that I find most tragic is that second chances are not doled out the same to everyone who makes a mistake.” That, and the title, really says it all. Heartbreaking. A great book I wouldn‘t have read without the excellent matchmaking of @monalyisha and the excellent taste of @TheKidUpstairs
#AuldLangSpine

Mike Leigh levels of bleak - exceptionally well done. At first I thought it was a thriller but it‘s more a deep dive into family trauma, poverty, and politics.

The last update on recently finished books. I read this on a combination of audio and kindle. An Irish family in London faces the possibility that their 11 year old daughter/granddaughter/niece has been accused of murdering a young girl in their housing estate. The death of the young child is just the route that it takes to examining unwed parenthood in Ireland in the 1980s, alcoholism, generational trauma and unintended consequences. Con‘t >

Oh, this is such a sad book!
Inter-generational trauma being carried and passed on with horrible inevitability by people without the wherewithal to transcend their circumstances.
Exploitative journalist Tom was a shitbag but I found I wanted more depth to his character, to see where he was coming from, just as we did with the Green family.

A quiet, Irish story

I thought this was really well written. I was definitely engaged in the story also.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

What a suprise this novel was to me. It starts so bleak and desperate. This novel follows an Irish family as they relocate to London where a tragic event happens. Imagine my suprise as the book takes a major turn near the end. Loved it! So glad the #womensprize brought this novel to my attention. 3.5 🌟

I loved Nolan‘s debut, Acts of Desperation, so I was primed to enjoy this one. Unfortunately, it missed the mark. I found the journalist plot device off putting and awkward.

A kid may have killed another kid. As the family awaits word on the police investigation, a journalist tries to get the scoop while sequestering them in a hotel, but instead he finds out more about the family‘s dysfunctional dynamic.

Jeez, what a sad roll call this book is. Not sure what I was expecting really. It‘s grim and sad and full of mistakes people make in life. And poverty and hopelessness.
Small glimmer of a light at the end.

Intergenerational loneliness and shame. The surface telling, and the deeper history. Guilt. Truth. Family. Denial. Migrant challenges. Tabloid journalism. Processing trauma. Beautiful sentences. When sensationalized stories become ordinary, but no less painful. 2024

P43 “the only surefire way to reduce a problem‘s importance was to replace it with a new and more urgent problem.”

P113 “Do you know how rare it is to start over?”

I loved this quietly sad, unsettling book that on the surface is about a tragic death, but is really about ordinary human failings. Parents failing children and adults failing each other and themselves. And at the end, a small glimmer of hope that felt well-proportioned to the story.

This was great. One of the better Women Prize books this year. The story of a troubled family slowly unravels. Each person is interesting and tortured in their own way. At the heart of the story is a horrible something, and a terrible reporter. The writing is solid and the book is heavy but intriguing.

“If you had the bad luck to be from Ireland, it felt, you had to suck it up and never have sex or else have the baby.”

You could also include 21 states in the U.S. where this now applies as well.

I‘m sitting at Safelite getting a new windshield with a bunch of very quiet people. Thankfully they don‘t have a tv on. Suddenly I noticed that both my book and my sweatshirt have the same logo. A bit of overkill? If I‘m lucky the folks will think I work at Galaxy. 😊

A young girl is suspected of killing a younger child and an opportunistic journalist tries to gain information about the tragedy from her family. As he pries and cajoles we are given glimpses into their lives and realize there is was a string of everyday tragedies leading to the present day one. A well executed but bleak rumination.

Gorgeously written.
I was worried about the subject matter of this book, dead child & child killer, but it wasn't at all what I feared. No trauma porn. Quite the opposite.
"Us Vs Them", gossip and finger pointing, unscrupulous tabloid reporters, and a very human family making bad decisions. Definitely shortlist material.
#WomensPrize2024 #womensprize

3 stars • Ordinary Human Failings delves into the issues of class, trauma, and family secrets. Set in 1990s London, the story revolves around the Greens, a family of Irish immigrants. Their lives are marked by a teenage pregnancy, escalating alcoholism, and a dead child on a London estate. As the police close in on a suspect and tabloids hunt their monster, the family confronts the secrets and silences that have trapped them for generations.

The Stranger in the Lifeboat is a must-read novel that was much darker than I had anticipated. It got me pondering the nature of humanity, perseverance, and trust. Next up is Ordinary Human Failings. I don‘t know much about this book, but the title alone made a connection for me.

#BookConnXtions by #suvataOnX, #Litsy, #Facebook, #Intagram and #Bookstagram

“There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we‘re a family, we‘re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.”

Propulsive and poignant family drama. Insightful, impactful writing. An impressive work of literary fiction. Great start to my #WomensPrize reading!

I think this book is a good example of “most people lead lives of quiet desperation.” We follow the current events of this family while learning the background of several characters during a tragic event. What I actually liked most was the setting that was shown but not remarked upon: the reality of poverty, the removal of women‘s choices, the prejudice of living in a land not your own. Worthy contestant for the Women‘s Prize for Fiction.

1990, a 3 yr old girl is found dead. The suspicion falls on a 10 yr old girl. A journalist that‘s in the area when it happens, decides to take advantage of this and puts the family in a hotel to get exclusive access to them. His talks with the grandfather, uncle and mother uncovers a divided family with alcohol problems and neglect. Prejudice and assumptions also play a role in the society‘s allegations.

I feel like I raced through this one

This was a sneaky little bugger. Presents as a straightforward mystery but is really a heartbreaking portrait of a family suffering from addiction, poverty, abuse, and neglect. I could have easily read about them for another 200 pages. #womensprizeforfiction

It‘s hard to say I enjoyed this book because it is so full of hurt, so full of ordinary human failings. It‘s raw and unflinching in its portrayal of a family who experience a horrific event, going back to the beginning and thru to the other side. 4.5 🌟

#WomensPrizeLonglist.

An excellent, engaging read.

1990. A young girl is found dead on a council estate in London. Another child is suspected of causing her death. An exploitative journalist hides the family away in a hotel in hopes of wringing a story out of them.

I couldn't turn away, and found myself sneaking time to listen during a busy March Break. Highly recommend! I usually can't do fiction on audio, but Jessica Regan's narration was superb.

#WomensPrize

A little English girl dies and the neighborhood quickly assumes the Irish immigrant family‘s daughter Lucy must have had a hand in it. An ambitious journalist wants to get to the bottom of it and talks to Lucy‘s family. The story is not so much about the death, but about a deeply damaged family with mother Carmel at their tragic heart.
It‘s a beautiful sad read.

#womensprize

"... they got mortgages and girlfriends and spoke about their houses as if houses were worlds."

This was a roller-coaster of a read! The emotions I felt with this book were visceral at times.

A great story about family dynamics and how perceptions (personal and external) can dictate your place in society.

Can already say that this is one of my favorite reads of 2024!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #NetGalley

US Pub Date: 2/6/24

Melancholiac and depressive literary fiction focusing on a struggling Irish family living in London in the 90's. Told from third person perspectives through its characters, a horrible crime is connected to the group as the media and the public already lay blame to the accused. However, this is a commentary on poverty, neglect, abuse, dysfunction, and societal attitudes the world ignores that takes place in our own homes.

Tom is a reporter who hears about a toddler going missing on a London council estate. When the fingers are pointed at a troubled Irish immigrant family, and in particular their young daughter, he is gleeful that he might get a ‘scoop‘.

This isn‘t about the child‘s disappearance but about the family background; how they ended up where they did.

I‘d have liked to learn more about Tom himself and ⬇️

#netgalley Published 13th July in the UK.