Good Eggs

Hardiman’s rollicking debut dives into the stories of a good-hearted but mischievous Dublin family. Millie Gogarty, an 83-year-old widow drawn to petty theft, “seems to have so little control over her slippery fingers,” as well as over her tongue. Her long-suffering son, Kevin, 50, has been out of work for two decades. Kevin and his wife, Grace, have four children, including the rebellious 16-year-old Aideen, who deliberately smashes her sister’s mirror (“no regrets there”), steals money from Grace, and is about to be shipped off against her will to a boarding school. When Millie is caught shoplifting again, Kevin arranges for a caretaker, an American named Sylvia Phenning, to keep an eye on her. Millie objects, but ends up getting along so well with Sylvia that Millie lends her money to pay for her nephew’s surgery in the U.S. However, in this hilarious, zippy novel, nothing is as it seems. While some of Millie’s escapades are so exaggerated that they move into slapstick territory, the prose is consistently sharp, as is the Gogartys’ hilarious banter. Full of surprises, Hardiman’s endearing novel stands out for its brilliant insight into the mixed blessings of family bonds. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Mar.)