In a town on the outskirts of Belfast in the 70's, Catholic school teacher Cushla becomes involved in an affair with Michael an older, married, Protestant man who works as a barrister. Their affair is conducted amidst the backdrop of ever present sectarian violence and there's a constant sense of foreboding and threat throughout the novel. Having recently read, and loved, Louise Kennedy's short story collection, I was keen to read this and it did not disappoint. Kennedy is a phenomenal writer and this is a beautiful, heartbreaking and nuanced novel that will stay with me for a long time. I'm not sure I've read anything else that so accurately captures the impact of living through the Troubles. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy.

CW: Violence, injury detail, hate crime, alcoholism, sexual harassment, grief

Pulls you in from the first page. . Set in Northern Ireland in the troubles Cushla, a teacher, has a foot in both camps. You’re swept along with her life, a brilliant tale of love ,alcoholism, sectarianism, and loyalties. I was completely invested in her relationships with Michael.and Davy
A book that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it

Louise Kennedy is such a great voice! I had sampled her short stories, and thought they were amazing. Trespasses feels different, quite a a traditional story written in a solid, assured style, with e keen eye to details and great world building. A Romeo and Juliet type of plot set in Northern Ireland, it still feels timely.

I loved this book.

Funny, clever and really intriguing, I was thinking about it long after I finished reading.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I read the blurb for Trespasses but what I got was a gripping, haunting & deeply evocative story of love & loss amidst The Troubles in 1970s Ireland.

Louise Kennedy's writing throughout these pages is quite simply flawless. From the first few lines I was captured & taken straight to 1970s Northern Ireland. The prose is so entrancingly evocative & effortless that I could smell the putrid thick smoke in the air, feel the hard bar stool pinching at my thighs & almost taste the oaky amber liquids swirling in Michael's glass.

Every single character Kennedy has written is very much their own distinct individual with contrasting beliefs, morals & quirks. What they all have in common is that they are so raw & real & are not pretending to be anything that they aren't. There are characters that I absolutely hated, to the point where I almost snarled as they appeared on the pages, there were characters who simply broke my heart & left me crushed by the situation they were in & then there were those that I just couldn't get a hold of, so slippery just like in life when you don't know what to make of someone.

The book overflows with extreme emotions & I feel that's down to Louise's ability to depict the true reality of events & festering atmosphere of 1970s Ireland so realistically that it is hard not to feel the intense fear terror & anger that was bubbling within the people at the time.

Often when I'm reading, I simply just read & enjoy the story & maybe try to figure out the plot. However, with Trespasses I was so engrossed within the words that I found myself visualising every scenario playing out in my head in vivid detail, to say I was caught within the flow of the storyline would be an absolute understatement. I found myself so enthralled that when it came to the ending it honestly felt like a punch to the stomach, which inevitably kept on coming. It is a long time since I've been so enthralled by a book that I simply just experienced it & enjoyed it without wondering what was coming next.

A beautifully raw & brutal piece of writing which stirred huge emotions & will stay with me for quite some time to come.

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy was a very gripping novel and I was hooked from the beginning. This was written beautifully and the characters were excellent and spot on for this book. This isn't my usual book to read but I am so glad I had the chance to read and review it.

I highly recommend this book.

Big thank you to Netgalley, the author Louise Kennedy, the publisher bloomsbury publishing for an advance copy of this book.

The cover of this book completely drew me in, and Im very glad it did, Trespasses was unlike anything I've read before. It is a fascinating and wonderful story of love against a permanent backdrop of violence and bombs in 1970s Belfast.
The city suffered from a long lasting campaign of violence between various paramilitary groups, so much so that the children who form part of the storyline are very familiar with the terms nail bombs or para military. Cushla is a naive teacher in her 20s who falls for Michael, a married older man. Their relationship is a happy interlude in the unending stories of violence and injury, weaving a tale of doomed love between the couple, doomed as we know he's never going to leave his family for Cushla. She is exposed to a whole new world through being with Michael and finds herself caught up in situations she'd never have anticipated.


The language is poetic and beautiful, it was a joy to read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury publishing for the arc of what proved to be a wonderful book.

Set in 1970s Northern Ireland - Cushla, a Catholic teacher who lives with her alcoholic mother and works in their families bar in her spare time begins a relationship with a prominent Protestant barrister. The secret affair is set to the backdrop of The Troubles, dotted with daily stories of what horrors have happened close by.

I started this book a while ago and put it down again, I needed to give it my full attention and I couldn't at that stage. I picked it up again and devoured it in 2 days. Louise Kennedys descriptions make you feel everything. You're not just reading about something you're feeling what is going on around you, where Cushla is, what it looks like, smells like, feels like. That's a gift that not many authors can pull off, but Kennedy does so with aplomb.
Being from Northern Ireland myself adds a certain connection to the story, but being invested in a character and a story is something that only an accomplished author can do.

Having read and LOVED The End of the World is a Cul De Sac I was very excited to receive a copy of this. Unfortunately it really didn't work for me.
I think this is definitely a case of me rather than the book, so I may return to it another time.

Set in the seventies, Belfast. In the midst of violence and disruption.

The book is mainly about the life of Cushla Lavery who during the day teaches junior school children. In the evening she tends her family's bar. On such a night a stranger turns up at the bar named Michael Agnew a barrister. A light sparkes between them instantly.

This book shows you how people coped during the raging Irish war, and how they adapted to day-to-day life, and coped with death, violence, and struggle on a daily basis.

The research into this book is good and you can imagine in your mind's eye the characters where they lived and the fear they lived through.

It is an excellent book and really enjoyable.

Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. xx

Cushla Lavery lives with her alcoholic mother in a small town near Belfast in the time of The Troubles. The author has carefully drawn what life was like around that time. Cushla, a catholic who works as a teacher and regularly bar tends at the family pub. It’s there she meets protestant Michael Agnew, an older married Civil Rights lawyer and they are instantly drawn to each other despite their religious differences. He introduces her to his group of friends on the pretence of her teaching them Irish.

When one of her pupil’s dad is a victim of an unprovoked attack she becomes involved, too involved in helping out which has repercussions of their own..

I absolutely loved it and would recommend.

Based around the 1970s Northern Ireland troubles. Catholic and Protestant divisions during such a sensitive time in history. Fascinating insight into this period with the story of Cushla Lavery a catholic teacher becoming involved with Michael a barrister who is an older married man and Protestant.
Cushla becomes involved trying to help one of her young pupils families with consequences of this liaison eluded to throughout the story.
The story is very emotional on many levels and shows the deprivation, poverty, violence as well as tremendous bleakness about the whole situation.

I had so much about this book and had very high hopes for it. I was no let down. Louise is a beautiful writer and this book is a real good reflection of what was a very difficult time in Northern Ireland. This book will stay with you long after you read it, it will make you cry and is one of the best books I have read this year. A superb book that is not to be missed.

Its 1975. Cushla Lavery is a young Catholic primary school teacher who lives with her alcoholic mother on the outskirts of Belfast. She works part-time in her brothers bar and its here she first meets the erudite Michael Agnew, a prominent civil rights barrister. Hes also protestant, 30 years her senior and married. Cushla becomes concerned about young Davy, a pupil of hers whose father has been badly beaten by a paramilitary gang. She becomes involved with the family which has consequences,. Its a grim period in the history of Northern Ireland.

Kennedy writes women so well: women on the edge, whether that be socially, economically or politically. Her female characters in this novel are strong. Davy's mother is Protestant and is ostracized by her Catholic neighbours. She is the one left holding the family together when her husband is left for dead. Cushla faces the everyday discrimination of living in a mixed community, from people routinely mispronouncing her name to sneers and innuendos from Michael's suave circle of friends. There is a palpable sense of place in the novel with the evocation of a grim and grey Belfast . Characters are vividly drawn. Young Davy was a heartbreaking favourite. Kennendy portrays the anxiety felt by the youngsters living in a city blighted by the violence and bigotry and how in so many ways, that violence is normalised.

This is a beautiful, melancholic read, which is unflinching and brutal at times. it manages to very succesfully run the course between love and terror. Thank you so much to @netgalley and @bloomsburypublishing for the e-copy of this book in return for my honest review. 4

A wonderfully, evocative story of love and life set in a small town on the outskitrs of Belfast during The Troubles. Louise Kennedy brings her characters to life with tenderness and care and make the story very readable despite the violence that was part of everyday life.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this story.

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

5

This is my second novel by Louise Kennedy and there is no doubt that Trespasses will wrench at your heart and keeping you thinking about Cushla, Davy and Gina long after you have finished this book.

Cushla, "A Chuisle mo chroi" meaning the pulse of my heart is the story of a young woman growing up in 1970's Belfast. It's a turbulent time politically and Cushla finds herself surrounded by brutal acts of sectarian violence, poverty and unemployment. All announced daily by regular news bulletins. Even the young children she teaches in a local Catholic school are not shielded by what is happening around them. Their innocence smothered under the watchful eye of Fr Slattery. Cushla helps out when she can at her brother's local bar. She lives with her alcoholic mother and within a few pages Kennedys sharp, sensitive and sense of observation pulls you deep into Cushla's world. When Cushla becomes involved with Michael, a married Barrister her actions are soon felt by all those around her. The mother daughter relationship is portrayed with such a sharp sensitivity that it will leave you blurry eyed and sympathetic to their entire situation.

Irish writing at its best that will certainly keep a place in your heart.

I found this book to be a bit of a slow burner in the beginning but the beautifully understated writing kept me reading and, slowly, I became engaged with Cushla and Michael's strange love story. The backdrop of Belfast in the 1970s was seamlessly woven in and ancillary characters were three dimensional and worthy of their place in the story. I was slightly disappointed in the ending, which seemed to heading for a large bang but ended with a genteel whimper. Overall, though, a book I would recommend.
I voluntarily read an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Wow-what a fabulous debut. A wonderfully written book. A rare look into the Northern Irelands troubles. Recommended.

Louise Kennedy’s first collection of short stories, The End of the World is. Cul-de-Sac, is an outstanding exploration of modern Ireland, sometimes tinged with the shadows of what went before.

Trespasses steps fully into a past that is remembered by many still alive today - the Belfast of The Troubles. She chooses a variety of characters to open up the span of lives there and then: the brave/foolhardy young Catholic teacher Cushla, the liberal Protestant barrister Michael, the obsessed-with-appearances Protestant bourgeois group learning Irish, the solid Catholic bar-owner trying to succeed despite the odds, the downtrodden Catholic family, and even a gay teacher.

The central focus is on the torrid and troubled relationship of Cushla and Michael - a last tango in Belfast level of engagement at times.

The writing and dialogue are superb.

The only flaw is that the reader is not required to do any work, unlike the short stories.

My gosh, this was harsh. Of course, I knew of The Troubles in Ireland, but this novel personalises it pretty well. I’m not religious myself and have always had trouble understanding why people fight each other over religion, but sadly it’s the case.
The novel is set in Belfast in the seventies and even though religion doesn’t seem that important to some people, it is to most. Cushla, being a catholic, isn’t supposed to help a protestant boy who is in her class and his family, she isn’t supposed to have a relationship with a Protestant man. People from both religions drink side by side in the pub though. It must provide for trust issues. And can you trust people you know? When you don’t share the same religion?
An interesting theme.
Thank you Bloomsbury and Netgalley UK for the ARC.