Eimear McBride's debut novel tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother after a tumour leaves him severely brain-damaged. Not so much a stream of consciousness, as an unconscious railing against a life that makes little sense, and a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and sensual urges of a vulnerable and isolated protagonist, to read 'A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing' is to plunge inside its narrator's head, experiencing her world first-hand. This isn't always comfortable - but it is always a revelation.