The fourth installment of Martha Long's coming of age memoirs—all of them bestsellers in Ireland and the UK.
Sixteen-year-old Martha's luck is finally changing. Taken in by a kind young priest, Father Ralph Fitzgerald, and his wealthy mother, she gets a taste of "how the other half lives" and resolves to make a better life for herself once and for all. Soon she's off to school to become a secretary: her ticket to a respectable middle-class existence. But even as her fortune improves--she has a roof over her head, food in her belly, and the freedom to do as she pleases--the love and community she has sought since she was a child continue to elude her. Her friendship with Father Ralph, the first person to make her feel truly special, may hold the key to her happiness. However, as their friendship becomes something more, Martha discovers that love can heal--but it can also hurt, deeply. In Ma, Now I'm Goin Up in the World, Martha navigates 1960s Ireland with her trademark compassion, optimism, and fiery strength. But will these traits be enough to see her through the greatest challenge of her life thus far?
I’m at rock bottom now, just living on me wits, with no money, no job, no place to live and not one soul in the world to turn to. So, there’s only one place I can go now and that’s up!
MARTHA LONG was born in Dublin, Ireland, in the 1950s and still lives there today. She is the author of seven Ma books that together form a social history of Dublin and London as seen through the eyes of a child: Ma, It's a Cold Aul Night an I'm Lookin for a Bed; Ma, Now I'm Goin Up in the World; Ma, I'm Getting Meself a New Mammy; and Ma, He Sold Me for a Few Cigarettes. They have all been international bestsellers, each hitting #1 on the The Irish Times bestseller list. Long is also the author of a novel, Run, Lily, Run.
