By Trisha FitzGerald-Petri

Dublin, Ireland

Growing up and growing old. These two side effects of life creep up on Finnula ‘Fudge’ Ginnane and her mother, Mary, simultaneously, yet while the young country girl is helped through this confusing time by her best friend, Lilly McDermott, the older woman must face advancing age and the heartache of a forbidden relationship alone.

This tragicomic tale spins a web of unexpected love, rejection, discovery, loss and finally, hope.

What They Are Saying About Over The Wall

The heartbreak of mother loss anchors this tale of interwoven Irish lives in a tender, funny and tragic rendering of the fate of two lifelong friends. From a feisty adolescence in a small boarding school to big city adulthood, the two friends explore the limits of loyalty. In this spirited, atmospheric portrayal of a quintessential Irish coming-of-age, FitzGerald-Petri pulls together the lives of friends, family, and lovers around a haunting call for a lost mother, touching the reader’s heart when the yearning is unexpectedly fulfilled.

—Dr. P. R. Preciado.

Dr. P. R. Preciado, a member of The Frankfurt Writers’ Group, has actively participated in writers’ workshops in America and Great Britain. Furthermore, she leads creative writing courses for native and non-native speakers at the Volkshochschule in Frankfurt am Main.

Over The Wall by Trisha FitzGerald-Petri is an intelligent and timely story in which two girls from opposite sides of society become life-long friends.

You will follow Fudge Ginnane and Lilly McDermott from girlhood into womanhood, from one drama to another, sometimes laughing hilariously, other times crying. Ms. FitzGerald-Petri writes a stunning story about the struggles of everyday people. She shows money isn’t always the solution, but it can often be a problem. Over The Wall is a recommended read, but be sure to keep a tissue handy. I give this outstanding novel FIVE STARS.

—Jacqueline McGuyer

Author, Blood Secrets

Wings Press

Over The Wall is written in the author’s familiar descriptive style, displaying Irish countryside, Dublin slums, and characters themselves with equal panache, and a wry sense of humour. For example: “The last time she’d seen him his face consisted mainly of a nose, but now the other features had caught up.”

The subject of class differences crops up in the story, and is handled with deft and poignant awareness. One of my favorite characters, Skids Curry, appears late in the book as a blustering, down-to-earth businessman who shamefacedly hides a tender heart. From college professor to Irish housewife, from socialite to a delivery van driver, FitzGerald-Petri treats all her characters with understanding affection.

—Jeanette Cottrell

http://www.simegen.com

While the central focus of this novel is the friendship of Fudge and Lilly, and the way in which each woman searches for love, the author also takes the time to explore a non-traditional romantic attraction between two middle-aged characters, one married and one widowed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and found it a compelling study of female friendship, romantic entanglements that creep in when you least expect them, and the ways in which people deal with the ups and downs of life.

http://www.longandshortreviews.com

Over The Wall is an enchanting story about life, love, and friendship. The story begins with the account of two unlikely friends at a boarding school—one spoiled, rich, and motherless, the other a farm girl from a close-knit family. Years later, they are reunited and their friendship blossoms into adulthood and along with it work, responsibility, and love. The story is a wonderful concoction of various relationships and how some children grow up to be very different adults and others don’t change much at all. The bonds between the characters take surprising turns throughout and Trisha does a fantastic job developing the characters and making them feel like our friends, too.

—Edee Wilcox

Author (Saved Times Three)

What a fantastic page-turner! It’s been ages since I read a book that so enthralled me, maybe because there’s a bit of Lilly and Finnula, the two friends whose story Over The Wall focuses on, in me.

Lilly, the bragging adventurer eager to defy authority, the tough cookie with the stunning looks who, in reality, is but an injured bird, forever wounded by the loss of her mother. Fudge, the serious girl who despairs at finding love, true love, but short of finding it, becomes her friend’s most loyal ally, her life savior.

Over The Wall takes the two lifelong friends from girlhood to womanhood, thrusting us into situations that are in turn funny, often tragic. It deals with the kinds of emotions and human experiences—friendship and love for instance—that most of us have all gone through in one way or another.

Fitzgerald-Petri’s “coup de maitre” is to make these emotions so credible that they make us laugh and cry.

—Isabelle de Pommereau

free-lance journalist

(Christian Science Monitor

The Observer Alternatives Internationales)