Doyle tackles depression with the deftest of touches

Brilliant

**By** Roddy Doyle

**Macmillan,** €13.85

**Reviewed by** Anna Carey

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Writing for children about dark and serious topics can be a tricky business. On one hand, there’s the risk of trivialising or sentimentalising the issue. And on the other, there’s the more common pitfall of focusing on the subject to the detriment of the characters and the plot.

Many of us will be familiar with the latter sort of novels that tackle ...