She teaches primary school while also taking up shifts in the family pub, run by her brother Eamonn. Set in 1975 Northern Ireland, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy revolves around Twenty-four-year-old Catholic schoolteacher Cushla Lavery, a resident of a garrison town near Belfast. The vocabulary of a 7-year-old child now.” *Shortlisted for The 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction*

With our own society seeing alarming levels of polarization, this is at times a sobering read. What might in another time and place be decisions that have only personal consequences, we see that in 1975 Northern Ireland Cushla’s choices have ramifications that impact her family and community. We follow Cushla Lavery, a young RC schoolteacher, who doesn’t always follow the route prescribed for her, trespassing (as the title suggests) into a married relationship and, separately but perhaps relatedly, into the family life of one of her students. At its heart, this is a personal, character driven work. Kennedy shows the situation with nuance, including a class element that adds another layer to the dynamic. Many of us viewing the Troubles from the outside, at a remove of time and distance, might see both sides as rather unsympathetic. Set in a small town outside Belfast at the height of the Troubles, we see a mixed community coming to terms with increasing sectarianism.

That this is Louise Kennedy’s debut novel is all the more impressive.

1975 - just about as well as any historical work out there. Trespasses captures a time and place - Northern Ireland ca.

Trespass louise kennedy