The Women Behind the Door

The undisputed laureate of ordinary lives * Sunday Times *
[Paula has] a wild and hilarious narrative voice… [and] a gloriously sardonic sense of humour. The book deals with hard times and dark matters, but there’s always light in the writing * Guardian *
Lesser novelists would ‘humanise’ Paula with virtue and much curiosity. But the protagonist Doyle gives us is as proud, inane and flawed as she is compassionate, witty and dignified * Literary Review *
Paula Spencer [is Doyle’s] endlessly resilient, thoughtful and entirely fictional protagonist… [The Women Behind the Door] is possibly Doyle’s most mature, and certainly his most structurally sophisticated [book] * The Times *
Roddy Doyle’s new novel might be the best thing he has written… it’s full of energy and life, it complete a trilogy to read and reread, and it shows us finally, joyously, how, whatever life throws at Paula Spencer, “she’ll manage. She always has.” * Observer *
A masterclass in dialogue from the bard of the bog ordinary * Saga *
Doyle has long been praised for his use of vernacular, dialect and slang: talk is at the heart of his work and this book is no exception, whether via the interiority of thought or the audible babble of jokes, jeers, recrimination, fury * Financial Times *