The house that Jack built

* A painfully honest, wry and funny novel of a woman facing her moment of truth, told with the humour, lightness of touch and realism that could only come from an Irish author! * THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT marks the beginning of a major new career in women's fiction. Catherine Barry is an utterly original new writer destined for the top of the bestseller list * The first title in Simon and Schuster's co-publishing venture with Town House in Ireland, it will be backed with a u75,000 marketing campaign jack Joyce loses her virginity at the age of sixteen and finds the experience a crushing disappointment. But more than a decade on - living in a tiny flat, as a single mother with a dead-end job - she still dreams of Matt, Thin Lizzy, and those days of olda So bumping into Matt unexpectedly one Christmas, she feels she has met with her destiny. Okay, so he's married, he has kids, but surely divine intervention must count for something? If she can just shift some weight and stop drinking so much, who can say what might happen? When Matt invites her to join an evening class he's co-teaching, Jack's fantasies soar to new heights. She soon finds that Matt has set her on the first step of a journey that will change her life. Only it's not quite the journey she had in minda