THE FAT LADY SINGS
Jacqueline Roy
'A strong and humane work of fiction'
Jackie Kay
Two British women of Jamaican descent are confined to a psychiatric unit. One is prone to mood swings and sudden bursts of loud public singing; the other hears voices in her head. Both are considered 'mad'. As the novel unfolds, each woman traces the disturbing events that led to her incarceration and, in mapping the past, can begin to envisage the future.
In her debut novel, Jacqueline Roy has created a startling, funny and compelling portrait of life in a psychiatric unit. Her complex and engaging characters invert notions of normality, raising questions about how we deal with separation and loss. This is also a story of resistance and survival.
Jacqueline Roy
was born in Britain and is of African-Caribbean and English parentage. She is a lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures and Creative Writing and is a member of the teaching team at the Writing School based at The Manchester Metropolitan University. She has written four novels for older children; The Fat Lady Sings is her first novels for adults.