Paula Spencer (2006)

The heroine of Roddy Doyle's 1996 novel The Woman Who Walked Into Doors is back in Paula Spencer, widowed and newly sober but as endearing as she was a decade ago. Writing in Paula's voice with such assurance that there isn't a single dishonest word, Doyle reintroduces a woman who tends to her fractured extended family and troubled children while coming to terms with the fallout of her alcoholism and marital abuse. Doyle treats Paula and her pain with a tenderness that transforms what might be a bleak story of a working-class Dublin woman into a tale of triumph and great humor. It is, as Paula herself likes to say, ''just grand.''