A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing is the debut novel of Eimear McBride. This stream of consciousness novel explores an Irish girl's relationship with her disabled brother, religious mother, and her own troubled sexuality. Joshua Cohen described how McBride's experimental style "forgoes quotation marks and elides verbiage for sense, sound and sheer appearance on the page. For emphasis it occasionally wreaks havoc on capItalS and reverses letter order." McBride began writing her debut novel whilst working in a series of office temp jobs. It took nine years to find a publisher and was rejected
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by numerous companies. The book was eventually first published in 2013, with an initial print run of 1000 copies, by Galley Beggar Press of Norwich, England. Mr Layte, of Galley Beggar Press recalled that the unusual writing-style led him to take up the novel where others had overlooked it:I thought this was one of the most important books I had ever read. It had the same effect on me as when I first read Samuel Beckett. It was a game-changer as far as what could be done.In 2014, rights for a trade paperback were sold to publishers Faber and Faber.