Book Review: Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

My Rating: 4.5⭐️

“Booby trap. Incendiary device. Gelignite. Nitroglycerine. Petrol bomb. Rubber bullets. Saracen. Internment. The Special Powers Act. Vanguard. The vocabulary of a 7-year-old child now.”

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. She teaches primary school while also taking up shifts in the family pub, run by her brother Eamonn. She lives with her mother Gina, who is grieving for her late husband drowning her sorrows in alcohol. One evening she meets Michael Agnew a Protestant barrister in the family pub. He approaches her to assist him and his friends to learn the Irish language, inviting her to an “Irish language night”. Initially uncomfortable among Michael’s elite friends, she finds herself drawn to Michael and his circle eventually falling in love with him embarking on an illicit affair despite the age difference and the fact that Michael is married.

Cushla is a caring teacher, genuinely concerned for the well-being of her students. One of her students, Davy McGeown, belongs to a mixed family (Catholic-Protestant), a fact that makes him and his family easy targets for harassment. A brutal attack on Davy’s father and Cushla’s support for the family and Davy puts her in a precarious position in the community. Her affair with Michael, who is known for his defense of IRA members, complicates her life further. What follows is a sequence of events that will jeopardize not only Cushla’s life but everything and everyone she holds dear.

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy is an exceptionally well-written, intense novel. This is not an easy read and you know from the very beginning that there can be no happy ending for these characters. The prose is direct and at times brutally honest while describing the societal distinctions, violence, divisiveness, bigotry and politics in Northern Ireland during the early years of the Troubles. Bombs, barricades, arrests and death seem to be common occurrences that people have incorporated as a part of daily life, which in itself is heartbreaking. The author captures the essence of ordinary people trying to live normal lives in volatile times beautifully. The characters are flawed, realistic and convincing. Your heart goes out to Davy and Cushla is someone who you are compelled to sympathize with. You may not agree with some of her decisions but you cannot help but feel for her as she struggles with her feelings for Michael and fear for her as attempts to help Davy’s family. The prose is crisp and sparse, at times matter of fact but the tension, the fear, the heartbreak, and the pain is palpable in this tightly woven novel.

Overall this is an exceptionally well - novel that I would not hesitate to recommend. I paired my reading with the excellent audio narration by Bird Brennan which made for an immersive experience.