Breakfast on Pluto (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780060931582)

A New York Times Notable Book

"[A] moving, brilliantly told tale. . . full of human comedy and cruelty." -- Washington Post Book World

From internationally acclaimed author Patrick McCabe, the Booker Prize-nominated novel that tracks the chaotic life of an abandoned orphan who becomes a transvestite and braves the combustible streets of London in the 1970s.

With wonderful delicacy and subtle insight and intimation, McCabe creates Mr. Patrick "Pussy" Braden, the endearingly hopeful hero(ine) whose gutsy survival and yearning quest for love drive the glimmering, agonizing narrative in which the troubles are a distant and immediate echo and refrain.

Twenty years ago, her ladyship escaped her hometown of Tyreelin, Ireland, fleeing her foster mother Whiskers (prodigious Guinness-guzzler, human chimney) and her mad household, to begin life anew in London. There, in blousy tops and satin miniskirts, she plies her trade, often risking life and limb amongst the flotsam and jetsam that fill the bars of Piccadilly Circus. But suave businessmen and lonely old women are not the only dangers that threaten Pussy. It is the 1970's and fear haunts the streets of London and Belfast as the critical mass of history builds up, and Pussy is inevitably drawn into a maelstrom of violence and tragedy destined to blow her fragile soul asunder.

Author: Patrick McCabe
ISBN-10: 0060931582
ISBN-13: 9780060931582
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Language: English
Published: 10/06/1999
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.39lbs
Size: 8.03h x 5.32w x 0.58d
Award: Man Booker Prize - Nominee
Award: Guardian First Book Award - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 11/28/1999 pg. 32
New York Times 12/05/1999 pg. 104
Library Journal 03/01/2005 pg. 127