Honor Molloy drew inspiration from her parents' lives and the colorful citizens of Dublin, Ireland, to pen this raucous debut novel. Told through the eyes of young Noleen O'Feeney, Smarty Girl chronicles the gradual decline of Noleen's family in the 1960s. With her local legend of a father seemingly determined to wreck his family, and her American mother working desperately to save it, Noleen grows up—tougher and wiser—but remains helpless as fate presses onward.