WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2018
'Milkman is extraordinary. I've been reading passages aloud for the pleasure of hearing it. It's frightening, hilarious, wily and joyous all at the same time.' - Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous.
Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.
Anna Burns's Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Milkman, is a powerful fictional tale set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
The story is told through the voice of a teenage girl known only as middle sister, who is coming of age in the most arduous of circumstances. She is doing her best to negotiate the burdening suspicion and gossip in her tight-knit community while being on the receiving end of unwanted attention from a man known as milkman.
This extract contains a rare moment of light when our young protagonist heads to a French evening class downtown. During the class, the teacher invites the students to consider the colour of the sky, but for middle sister the menace and fear of milkman is never far away.
