The Gingerbread Woman by Jennifer Johnston

On a rainy afternoon on Killiney Hill a young man walking, without his overcoat, happens upon a woman gazing out over Dublin bay, standing perilously close to the edge. From their testy encounter develops a remarkable friendship which will enable each to face afresh their very different, damaged pasts, and to look, however tentatively, towards the future.

'The grande dame of modern Irish literature, Jennifer Johnston has been writing superior fictions, that both embody the wounds of Irish life and scrutinise themes beyond its orbit, for over a quarter of a century. THE GINGERBREAD WOMAN continues her theme of the search for personal freedom... Exceptionally gifted in structuring her narrative so that the reader is compelled to discover the secrets that scar her protagonists, Johnston is also blessed with an understated wisdom, and a heightened understanding of love and loss' Glasgow List

'A superb stylist, humorous, surprising and virtuously plain' - Lynne Truss, Sunday Times

'A beautifully crafted novel' - Sunday Telegraph

'THE GINGERBREAD WOMAN is characteristic as well as untypical of Johnston, similar yet different. She knows her territory. Probably the most consistently undercelebrated of Irish writers, her genius lies in her calm, intelligence and her distinctive feel for the way an individual will act in an extreme emotional crisis.... Jennifer Johnston has always demonstrated an exact understanding of the cultural nuances of Irish life as well as the perceptions, even textures, that go into being Irish. Few Irish writers have pursued these questions so intently. Aside from all this, THE GINGERBREAD WOMAN reiterates she remains, as ever, a shrewd, canny storyteller who understands human error' - Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

'As in all her best novels, Johnston's vividly immediate effects belie the simple elements from which they are created. And although the book is firmly rooted in character, place and time, its reach extends well beyond the particular into the universal territory of classic storytelling' - Spectator