This is an auction for THE WOMAN WHO WALKED INTO DOORS by Roddy Doyle.

"Proud of her early-developed breasts, Paula O'Leary "went with" lots of boys from her working-class Dublin neighborhood. With perfectly timed dance moves to "My Eyes Adored You," Charlo Spencer takes her. But he changes after their honeymoon. When Charlo first strikes her, she is stunned. His violent outbursts increase as slaps and bruises become yanked-out hair, broken fingers, and knocked-out teeth. While raising four children, she continues to be abused; she loses self-respect, denies how bleak things are, and drinks heavily. Once after blackening her eye, Charlo asks how she got it. Knowing his reaction depends on her answer, she claims to have walked into the bedroom door. Doyle's first novel, The Commitments, was turned into a successful film; a subsequent one, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, won the 1993 Booker Prize. Here the reader can cinematically envision Paula Spencer getting beaten down while friends, family members, and emergency-room staff blame her "accidents" on alcohol. Yet she never gives up, always washes off the blood, and knows she must continue for her children's sake. This gut-wrenching novel will be much discussed by groups of physically abused people."

• Booklist (US)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Roddy Doyle's first three novels—The Commitments, The Snapper, and the 1991 Booker Prize finalist The Van—are known as The Barrytown Trilogy. He is also the author of the novels Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (1993 Booker Prize winner), The Woman Who Walked into Doors, and A Star Called Henry.

Paperback 1997.

226 pages.

Some wear, but otherwise good condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.