‘I would like to make things beautiful, but a tawdry and repulsive kind of beauty. A braver sort than people have from birth. Sexy zombies on a bicep. That sort of thing.’
Ces longs to be a tattoo artist and embroider skin with beautiful images. But for now she’s just trying to reach adulthood without falling apart.
Powerful, poetic and disturbing, Needlework is a girl’s meditation on her efforts to maintain her bodily and spiritual integrity in the face of abuse, violation and neglect.
PRAISE FOR NEEDLEWORK
‘Reading Needlework is similar to getting your first tattoo – it’s searing, often painful, but it is an experience you’ll never forget.’ – Louise O’Neill, author of Only Ever Yours and Asking For It
‘Sullivan confronts a difficult subject matter head-on, yet with subtlety and grace … Needlework is a powerful novel that deserves to be read.’ – Sarah Crossan, author of The Weight of Water and One
‘Needlework is the sort of book adults worry about teenagers reading, and the sort of book teenagers need to have written for them.’ – Claire Hennessy, author, editor and reviewer
‘A modern, broken fairy tale that gets under your skin’ – Tara Flynn, author and comedian
Cover design by Irish artist Steve McCarthy
