At the end of his bestselling debut, Wednesday’s Child, Shane Dunphy was burnt out, and wrote of leaving his job as a child protection worker. But he returned to the profession he loved, and in Last Ditch House he revisits four more cases from his childcare days, using a technique similar to the first book. The narrative is set a year after Wednesday’s Child and tells of a summer spent working with four unusual cases for a voluntary child-protection group.
Last Ditch House is more complex, richer and a little darker than its predecessor and Shane Dunphy has consciously given more of himself this time, going into his own motivations and feelings in greater detail. The cases recounted here are those of four children from very different aspects of Irish society, each with a unique story to tell.
Once again, Shane Dunphy draws on the real-life experience of fifteen years working in child protection, and while these events did not, in reality, happen concurrently, he has woven them together to create a non-fiction book that has the pace, atmosphere and dialogue of a thriller. Yet everything recounted here really happened. These stories - shocking, heart-breaking and inspiring - are all true.
- ISBN13 9780717141791
- Publish Date 6 February 2007
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 17 June 2010
- Publish Country IE
- Publisher Gill
- Imprint Gill & Macmillan Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Pages 224
- Language English