Lullabies For Little Criminals

“A nuanced, endearing coming-of-age novel you won’t want to miss.”  -  Quill And Quire

At thirteen, Baby vacillates between childhood comforts and adult temptation: still young enough to drag her dolls around in a vinyl suitcase yet old enough to know more than she should about urban cruelties. Motherless, she lives with her father, Jules, who takes better care of his heroin habit than he does of his daughter. Baby's gift is a genius for spinning stories and for cherishing the small crumbs of happiness that fall into her lap. 

But her blossoming beauty has captured the attention of a charismatic and dangerous local pimp who runs an army of sad, slavishly devoted girls — a volatile situation even the normally oblivious Jules cannot ignore. And when an escape disguised as betrayal threatens to crush Baby's spirit, she will ultimately realize that the power of salvation rests in her hands alone.

“O’Neill is a tragi-comedienne par excellence... You will not want to miss this tender depiction of some very mean streets.”  -  Montreal Review of Books

A gritty, heart-wrenching novel about bruised innocence on the city's feral streets — the remarkable debut of a stunning literary talent