Paula Spencer

Paula is now forty-seven years old. Her husband is long dead, and it's been four months and five days since she's had a drink.

Two of her children are out of the house - John Paul, a recovering heroin addict, and Nicola, a successful sales rep - but twenty-two-year-old Leanne, who herself has a problem with alcohol, and sixteen-year-old Jack are still at home. Paula continues to work as a house and office cleaner and to live from paycheck to paycheck; she's feeling pretty washed up and hopeless.

But as she manages to get through each day sober, she begins to piece her life back together and to resurrect her family. She's even met a man at the bottle return; he's nice, there's something steady about him.

Told with the unmistakable wit of Doyle's extraordinary voice, this is a redemptive tale about a brave and tenacious woman.