Useless

Delinquent housekeeping meets the God particle.When shambolic mother Fionnuala Flood delivers her first child Moira at the beginning of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, it's an uncertain and violent time and a very difficult birth, the memory of which will haunt Fionnuala always. More difficult for her to come to terms with though is what Moira eventually reveals herself to be: a useless daughter.Twenty-five years later, third son Padraig is catching hell on the Moorside's mean streets. To help him out, Fionnuala puts in motion a chain reaction that will unleash her most audacious plan yet, a plan that leads her back to Moira and the girl's shocking new scientist job in Switzerland.Throw into the mix Fionnuala's arch enemies, Ursula and Jed Barnett, and you have a touching and uproarious darkly comic tale with a little science, a lot of family dysfunction and hopefully some reconciliation. Sometimes the most useless things can turn out to be most useful indeed.Contains the previously-released prequel A Difficult Birth.