Ma, I'm Gettin Meself a New Mammy

After numerous arrests for shoplifting, Martha is sent to the convent where, the judge rules, she is to get an education. Martha is relieved to be out of the clutches of her horrible drunken stepfather, Jackser, and her feckless mother, Sally, but anxious about what awaits. Her days in the convent are steady, predictable, safe--everything that her life had not been prior to being sent away. But as she says, "You can have a full belly, but your heart can be very empty." Put to back-breaking work by the nuns, and treated cruelly by the other children--they've marked her as a "street kid"--Martha works hard, keeps to herself, and steals away when she can with a cherished book. But Martha pines for simple affection, keeping after the Sisters day after day with the hope of an arm laid across her shoulders or a tender look. When her siblings arrive at the convent--taken from their mother by the courts--Martha is thrilled to again be with family and care for the babies. But then Sally and Jackser arrive to take the children home and beg Martha to return and help care for the kids. Martha makes a wrenching decision to stay behind, knowing with an unnatural foresight for such a young girl that they will all drag her down and possibly out forever. She must find her own way. She is thirteen.

“Praise for Ma, He Sold Me for a Few Cigarettes : "The destruction of our common humanity through the manipulation of imposed poverty, misogyny, alcoholism and drug abuse, is a major source of our misery, world-wide; and has been for a long time. Reading this startling testament to one child's valiant attempts to live until the age of sixteen (four years to go!) is a worthy reminder that we can do better as adults if we turn to embrace the children who are suffering, anywhere on earth, who are coming toward us, their numbers increasing daily, for help." --Alice Walker "Coming-of-age hardships skillfully recounted by way of the colloquial Irish tongue." -- Kirkus Reviews "Beautifully written and packed with detail. Miraculously, Martha is attuned to the simple wonders of the world around her: a BBC radio music program, young nuns having a snowball fight. It's a world she is determined to become a part of just as soon as she is old enough to flee." -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer "One thing readers will notice is the unexpected theme of courage and hope throughout this dark, heart-breaking tale. This story was one of the most unique, surprisingly inspiring memoirs available." -- Yahoo Voices”

Praise for Ma, He Sold Me for a Few Cigarettes:

"The destruction of our common humanity through the manipulation of imposed poverty, misogyny, alcoholism and drug abuse, is a major source of our misery, world-wide; and has been for a long time. Reading this startling testament to one child’s valiant attempts to live until the age of sixteen (four years to go!) is a worthy reminder that we can do better as adults if we turn to embrace the children who are suffering, anywhere on earth, who are coming toward us, their numbers increasing daily, for help." —Alice Walker

"Coming-of-age hardships skillfully recounted by way of the colloquial Irish tongue." —Kirkus Reviews

“Beautifully written and packed with detail. Miraculously, Martha is attuned to the simple wonders of the world around her: a BBC radio music program, young nuns having a snowball fight. It's a world she is determined to become a part of just as soon as she is old enough to flee.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer

"One thing readers will notice is the unexpected theme of courage and hope throughout this dark, heart-breaking tale. This story was one of the most unique, surprisingly inspiring memoirs available.” —Yahoo Voices

MARTHA LONG was born in the 1950s in Dublin, where she lives to this day. She is the author of the eight-part “Ma” series of memoirs, which have been best-sellers in the UK and Ireland. In 2014 Long published her first novel, Run, Lily, Run. A self-proclaimed “middle-aged matron,” she has successfully reared three children.

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