More Bread or I'll Appear Hardcover - 1999

From the publisher

At high speed and with wicked humor, Emer Martin introduces us to a family unlike any other. Long after her husband is institutionalized, Molly moves her children from the west of Ireland to Dublin. She is following her eldest daughter Aisling --- her favorite, the beloved --- who is to attend college there. But one summer Aisling disappears. Fifteen years later, Molly persuades the youngest and most reliable of her five children, Keelin, to put her own life on hold to search for Aisling. Traveling the world with various of her siblings, Keelin learns that each is cursed with their father's affliction --- "the doubting disease," as they call it. In one way or another, each is paralyzed and compelled to perform irrational acts. In pursuit of her wild, elusive sister, whose personality defies categorization, Keelin takes on a hip and decadent Japan, a talk-show-worthy United States, and a surreal Central America. Many curious adventures, an uncertain reunion, and a stunning betrayal later, Keelin is forced to question the familial attachments that have always driven her. More Bread or I'll Appear casts a unique eye on the issues of gender, race, and class that are vital to contemporary culture. It is a story about family, an examination of the tyranny of genetic and emotional bonds.