When retired teacher Eileen is asked to tutor Molly, a troubled teenager who refuses to attend school, a bond forms that helps both confront family demons—and learn to forgive. Molly Path is a moving reflection on the teacher–pupil relationship, the parents’ critical role in a child’s education—and the importance of a stable home to their destiny.
A stunning debut novel for Young Adults . . . published by Hawkwood Books on 15 August.
I’M Molly Path and I’m an empty space in a car park. Can’t do nothing. Stella says so, and she knows all about being useless. I live in a house with a broken TV. I live in a house with a broken washing machine. I live in a house with a broken boiler. Sometimes I live in a house with broken lights. I live in a house that reeks of brandy. I live in a house with Stella but not with Stan.
STELLA is in the kitchen sucking juice from an orange, although in this case it is a cigarette. Nonetheless, she draws on it with a slurp, then gulps the breath down into her lungs forcibly like a reluctant hostage. On a good day she can finish almost an entire fag with one, long, unbroken inhalation. A crooked digit of ash dangles precariously, ready to fall with the slightest judder. It is as if the cigarette has become her accusing finger.
Molly Path is Eugene O’Toole’s paean to a twenty-first century world desperate for hope and human inspiration … O’Toole is an exciting new voice in young adult literature who handles his subject with sensitivity, humour and awe. I strongly recommend his book to both teachers and pupils as well as anyone who loves an inspirational story that offers hope in our often bleak world.
—Martin Godleman, author (1909; Mercy; Our Days are Few; We’re West Ham United) and former teacher of students with mental health issues
Beautifully written, this story and these characters will stay with you long after the book is finished.
—Felicity Goodall, author: The People’s War; Exodus Burma; A Question of Conscience: Conscientious Objection in the Two World Wars
Molly Path will be published by the great independent press Hawkwood Books on 15 August. You can pre-order it here:
If you are a reviewer or a book blogger and would like a review copy, please contact me through the Contacts page
Gavin Eugene O'Toole 