On Charlotte's Shoulders A memoir of a tough Irish childhood and a mother's love

In a dank Dublin tenement in 1942, Julie meets a stranger - her father. Like her severely ill sisters, her father is on the periphery of her early family life. Her Ma, however, is her bedrock - a feisty, hard-working woman who single-handedly struggles to put food on the table and shoes on the feet of her large family - she does not suffer fools gladly. Young Julie plays happily in the street with her siblings and cousins, dreaming of being a singer, unaware of many of her Ma’s daily battles and ignorant of a better life. But as she grows into a young woman and sees her family go through poverty, illness, and heart-breaking troubles, she begins to understand the extent of her Ma’s bravery. On Charlotte’s Shoulders is a touching family portrait of the challenges of Irish family life in the ’40s and ’50s.