Kennedy writes poignantly about the Irish Troubles through the point of view of Cushla, a young adult stretching her wings despite her limits--her mother's alcoholism, her father's death, and her small outer Belfast community, where violent Protestant-Catholic tensions are threatening to rule every act, thought, and dream.
Cushla is a young teacher (who also fills in at the family pub) living through growing violence outside of Belfast. Along with her alcoholic mother and her impatient barkeep brother, she grieves the loss of her father while going about her day and living her modest lifestyle.
But Cushla--along with many other citizens--is more and more astounded by the increasing conflict between Catholics and Protestants, and the violent acts stemming from the growing schism.
A pub visitor, married barrister Michael Agnew, intrigues Cushla with his intelligence and his attention. He entreats her to teach him and his friends Irish, and after the two begin having an affair, she finds out that he's been defending IRA members and may be in danger.
After one of her students' fathers is beaten almost to death, a snowball of events causes secrets to be revealed, hearts broken, lives lost, and everything turned on its head.
Kennedy draws the reader into the specific place and time of the story, vividly building the constant undercurrent of tension, the twinges of fear, the devil-may-care affair, the sickening reckonings. This is beautiful and heartbreaking, but Trespasses is never maudlin or too easy. Both the world and the characters' personal lives are complicated, messy, wonderful, and fragile.
I listened to Trespasses as an audiobook.
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You can click here to find more Bossy reviews of books set in Ireland, including the nonfiction book Say Nothing, Claire Keegan's fiction, and others.
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