WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

'Utterly compelling' Irish Times
'Original, funny, disarmingly oblique' CLAIRE KILROY
'A triumph.' Guardian

In an unnamed city, where to be interesting is dangerous, an eighteen-year-old woman has attracted the unwanted and unavoidable attention of a powerful and frightening older man, 'Milkman'. In this community, where suggestions quickly become fact, where gossip and hearsay can lead to terrible consequences, what can she do to stop a rumour once it has started? Milkman is persistent, the word is spreading, and she is no longer in control . . .

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL FICTION

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.