The butcher boy

Francie lives with a violent, alcoholic father and a manic depressive, suicidal mother. The pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When his mother commits suicide and his friend, Joe, goes off to boarding school, Francie sinks ever deeper into paranoia thanks mainly to his nasty neighbour Mrs. Nugent. He begins to have a fantasy where he has visions of the Virgin Mary. After his father dies, ...