Closed Doors: A Novel

by Lisa O'Donnell

Overview

A young boy on a small Scottish island where everyone knows everything about everyone else, will discover that a secret is a dangerous thing in this tense and brilliant tale of from Lisa O'Donnell, the bestselling author of The Death of Bees, winner of the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize.

Eleven-year-old Michael Murray is the best at two things: keepy-uppies and keeping secrets. His family thinks he's too young to hear grown-up stuff, but he listens at doors; it's the only way to find out anything. And Michael's heard a secret, one that might explain the bruises on his mother's face.

When the whispers at home and on the street become too loud to ignore, Michael begins to wonder if there is an even bigger secret waiting to be discovered. Scared of what might happen if anyone finds out, and desperate for life to be normal again, Michael sets out to piece together the truth. But he also has to prepare for the upcoming talent show, keep an eye out for Dirty Alice, his arch-nemesis, and avoid eating Granny's watery stew.

Closed Doors is a vivid evocation of the fears and freedoms of childhood and a powerful tale of love, the loss of innocence, and the importance of family in difficult times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062271907
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/19/2015
Series:	P.S. Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lisa O'Donnell's debut novel, The Death of Bees, was the winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize. She won the Orange Prize for New Screenwriters for her screenplay The Wedding Gift. She lives in Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

Writing in a child’s voice is risky, but Lisa O’Donnell pulls it off in her second novel. . . . Ms. O’Donnell avoids triteness in this story of lost innocence, favoring candor and dark humor in the aftermath of violence.” — New York Times

“There’s loss of innocence here, but the overwhelming tone is warm and sparky; O’Donnell shows how a shattered family can remake itself, and Michael’s narrative voice is delightful—observant, thoughtful, comical, and thoroughly believable.” — Sunday Times (London)

“An engaging page-turner that effectively explores the trials and tribulations of childhood with warmth and humor.” — Booklist (starred review)

“[O’Donnell] has fashioned yet another humane and compulsive read, grounded in a realism which, depicted through a child’s eyes—with that hint of a child’s surreal perception—gathers together violence, humor, and love in a most believable way.” — Scotland on Sunday

“A skillfully told story of a boy’s struggle to come to terms with family secrets and their potentially terrible consequences. A sharp, witty, and heartbreaking second novel from a dynamic new talent.” — Kitty Aldridge, author of A Trick I Learned from Dead Men

“Sweet and sad, this is a coming-of-age story with dark secrets—and love—at its heart.” — Karen Campbell, author of This Is Where I Am

“Closed Doors demonstrates just as much skill, empathy and insight as its predecessor….Closed Doors is all about the voice—Michael’s 11-year-old world is entirely convincing….a hugely accomplished and engaging piece of storytelling.” — Big Issue

“A dazzling new novel. . . . A moving story that stakes a lasting, and disturbing, emotional claim on O’Donnell’s readers.” — The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

Writing in a child’s voice is risky, but Lisa O’Donnell pulls it off in her second novel. . . . Ms. O’Donnell avoids triteness in this story of lost innocence, favoring candor and dark humor in the aftermath of violence.

New York Times

Sweet and sad, this is a coming-of-age story with dark secrets—and love—at its heart.

Karen Campbell

A skillfully told story of a boy’s struggle to come to terms with family secrets and their potentially terrible consequences. A sharp, witty, and heartbreaking second novel from a dynamic new talent.

Kitty Aldridge

A dazzling new novel. . . . A moving story that stakes a lasting, and disturbing, emotional claim on O’Donnell’s readers.

The New York Times Book Review

[O’Donnell] has fashioned yet another humane and compulsive read, grounded in a realism which, depicted through a child’s eyes—with that hint of a child’s surreal perception—gathers together violence, humor, and love in a most believable way.

Scotland on Sunday

Closed Doors demonstrates just as much skill, empathy and insight as its predecessor….Closed Doors is all about the voice—Michael’s 11-year-old world is entirely convincing….a hugely accomplished and engaging piece of storytelling.

Big Issue

There’s loss of innocence here, but the overwhelming tone is warm and sparky; O’Donnell shows how a shattered family can remake itself, and Michael’s narrative voice is delightful—observant, thoughtful, comical, and thoroughly believable.

Sunday Times (London)

An engaging page-turner that effectively explores the trials and tribulations of childhood with warmth and humor.

Booklist (starred review)

…dazzling…O'Donnell won the prestigious Commonwealth Book Prize last year with The Death of Bees, a first novel that deftly balanced the morbid with the mundane, a talent that remains on full display here…Like Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell, O'Donnell's novel effectively evokes the carefree joys of adolescence as well as all of its terrors, real and imagined…It's not revealing too much to say that O'Donnell wraps up Closed Doors in a way that feels both unpredictable and inevitable. It's a fitting end to a moving story that stakes a lasting, and disturbing, emotional claim on her readers.

The New York Times Book Review - Andrew Ervin

04/14/2014
O’Donnell’s second novel (after The Death of Bees) is narrated by Michael Murray, an 11-year-old boy living with his parents and grandmother on a small island off the coast of Scotland during the Thatcher era. Early on, something terrible happens to Michael’s mother, Rosemary; he’s told that she fell down while running away from a flasher. Michael is spared the truth and initially accepts the explanation he’s given, but O’Donnell leaves plenty of clues suggesting that something tragic has occurred. In one of the novel’s most striking moments, Michael, desperate to make sense of his mother’s descent into depression and his father’s increasing anger over the crime, combs through dictionary entries of words he’s overheard his parents use while arguing. Though O’Donnell creates a powerful voice for her young protagonist, she is less than fair to Rosemary, whose fear that telling the truth would open her up to victim blaming is presented as simply a source of pain to others, rather than as a legitimate concern. Agent: Alex Christofi, Corville and Walsh (U.K.). (June)

Publishers Weekly

01/01/2014
As in The Death of Bees, a 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize winner, O'Donnell looks at adult misbehavior through the eyes of a child. Eleven-year-old Michael Murray has peered behind enough doors to know why his mother's face is often bruised, but he suspects that more secrets await him. With a 35,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal