There is no doubt in Thomasina Elliott's mind that her oldest schoolfriend is a creature of habit. So when, after three years of regular correspondence, Anna's letters suddenly stop, she becomes concerned. And even more so when it transpires that her friend has disappeared without trace, in extremely odd circumstances.
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood." So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and...