Fíona Scarlett is from Dublin but now living in Co. Kildare with her husband and two children. She holds an MLitt in creative writing from the University of Glasgow as well as a masters in early childhood education. She was awarded the Denis O’Driscoll Literary Bursary through Kildare County Council in 2019 and a Literature Bursary through the National Arts Council Ireland in 2020. She works full time as a primary school teacher and Boys Don’t Cry is her debut novel.
At the
Guardian Scarlett tagged
ten books that "reveal some general truths about brothers, for better and for worse." One title on the list:
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
This book is one of my all-time favourites, and though it does not feature brothers in the traditional sense, Elwood and Turner 
are most definitely brothers in all but name, a relationship rooted in love and everlasting friendship. Both boys meet in the Trevor Nickel Academy, a juvenile reform school in Florida during the early 1960s. The injustice, the cruelty, the unspeakable horrors that the boys witness daily is told without sentimentality, it’s just laid bare, and is all the more powerful for it. The fact that this book is based on the story of a real reform school made it all the more harrowing. A profoundly unsettling but necessary read.
Read about
another entry on the list.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
