Moville author Sharon Thompson shares an introductory extract from her second novel, The Healer.
This week in our ‘Woman’s Words’ literary series, we are delighted to share an extract from Sharon’s second novel to give readers a taste of the dark family drama.
Here we meet Molly, a beautiful young girl living in 1940’s Ireland who isn’t like others.
I like this lady in the fancy coat with the fur collar. No-one other than Daddy thinks I’m much of anything. I’m supposed to look people in the eye and listen to their nonsense. But sure, all that just makes me tired.
Daddy slicks a hand over his remaining hair, leans back on the stool and thrusts his long legs out by the open fire and puffs on his pipe. I know that’s the way he is when he’s pleased with me. After the woman leaves in her big car, and Mammy isn’t looking, he’ll give me some sweets from the tin on the mantlepiece, that his eldest brother Vincent brought him from Dublin.
I don’t notice the woman leaving as I’m away ‘with the fairies’, as Mammy calls it. There are no fairies like Mammy thinks. But, I suppose, I do go away into the shadows of my mind and listen to the dark shapes that I can see out of the corner of my eyes.