Trespasses

By: Louise Kennedy

Narrated by: Brid Brennan

Bloomsbury presents Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, read by Brid Brennan.

* THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER (The Times) * SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023 *

* WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR: DEBUT FICTION *
* WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022 *
* SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022 *
* AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2022 *
* A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME *
_______________

'Like Sally Rooney mixed with a political thriller’ RUSSELL KANE
'Intense, unflinchingly honest, it broke my heart a million times' MARIAN KEYES
'Absolutely loved it' MAX PORTER
'A beautiful, devastating novel' NICK HORNBY

One by one, she undid each event, each decision, each choice.
If Davy had remembered to put on a coat.
If Seamie McGeown had not found himself alone on a dark street.
If Michael Agnew had not walked through the door of the pub on a quiet night in February in his white shirt.

There is nothing special about the day Cushla meets Michael, a married man from Belfast, in the pub owned by her family. But here, love is never far from violence, and this encounter will change both of their lives forever.

As people get up each morning and go to work, school, church or the pub, the daily news rolls in of another car bomb exploded, another man beaten, killed or left for dead. In the class Cushla teaches, the vocabulary of seven-year-old children now includes phrases like ‘petrol bomb’ and ‘rubber bullets’. And as she is forced to tread lines she never thought she would cross, tensions in the town are escalating, threatening to destroy all she is working to hold together.

Tender and shocking, Trespasses is an unforgettable debut of people trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times.
______________

A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES * GUARDIAN * TELEGRAPH * NEW STATESMAN * DAILY MAIL * IRISH TIMES * IRISH INDEPENDENT * BELFAST TELEGRAPH

©2022 Louise Kennedy (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

I listened to it twice. Highly entertaining and educational.

This is an interesting story set in the time of The Troubles in Belfast in the 1970s. The author cleverly uses a love story and a primary school as a backdrop to paint the difficult issues faced by Catholics and Protestants at the time. I loved the characters and the narrator brought the story to life. Some of the themes covered are complex and I decided to listen to the story again so that I could pick up the nuances. This is an excellent book, and I have already recommended it to others.

Enthralling read

Being of Irish decent and having visited Ulster in the 60s I found this a wonderful portrayal of the sad hopeless tragic situation during the troubles.

Could not finish

Sorry for a sort of non-review, but the narrators voice just kept lulling me to sleep- so I never kept track of the story…