Trespasses
Louise KennedyNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community & a dangerous passion.°°°
Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family’s pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members.
Against her better judgment – Michael is not only Protestant but older, & married – Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, & an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, & everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.
As tender as it is unflinching, Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love & irreconcilable loyalties, in a place what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish.
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“Brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking. . . A rising sense of tension throughout comes to a shocking head. I am not a crier, but by the final pages of Trespasses, I was in tears. It’s a testament to Kennedy’s talents that we come to love & care so much about her characters. And that reading about a long & difficult period from the recent past feels not like history, but like a warning.” — J.Courtney Sullivan, New York Times Book Review
"Kennedy’s characters are born & live under dark stars; she illuminates the unescapable harms that occur in that darkness.” — Kirkus Reviews
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Louise Kennedy is the author of a collection of short stories, The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac. She has written for The Guardian, The Irish Times, & BBC Radio 4. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a chef for almost 30 years.