Trespasses - Louise Kennedy

[biddyboo]

Has anyone read this?

It tells the story of an affair between a young Catholic teacher and an older Protestant barrister in 1970's Belfast.

I am utterly gripped by it. I love the way she writes, so simple and effective. I feel really invested in the characters, but given the historical context it's set in, I have a feeling is is going to end very tragically.

I read it earlier this year and loved it. Beautifully written. Really quiet story. Very powerful. It's beautifully crafted.

I'm currently reading a collection of her short stories which I bought because i loved the novel so much.

If you like her, you might also like Katie Kitamura's Intimacies. Another really quiet, simple but incredibly powerful story.

Thanks I haven't heard of Katie Kitamura. I'll definitely check her out. And Louise Kennedy's short stories too.

I loved it - it’s probably one of my favourite reads of the year. It’s deceptively simply written, but the sense of time and place is so strong. It really conveys how the personal and the political were inextricably linked during the troubles. Terribly sad, too, of course.

I loved it.

Yes I really enjoyed it too. Somewhat mixed feelings at book club which surprised me, but everyone thought the writing was wonderful. The sense of time and place was amazing and I can't even work out how she did it.

Completely agree that the writing is deceptively simple, but evokes the scenes so strongly. I have such vivid imagery in my head when she describes something. And i love how complex their relationships are and all the complicated feelings they have about each other.

I'd love to hear other recommendations from people who loved Louise Kennedy. Similar naturalistic, vivid, not too obviously plotted works that are emotionally complex.I love the simple writing too. I don't get on with writers like Maggie O'Farrell, brilliant though she is, where the writing is so ornate it seems to get in the way of the life of the characters.

My recommendations are Katie Kitamura's Intimacies and pretty much anything by another Irish writer Lucy Caldwell. i just LOVE her work.

If you don't mind something a bit more disturbing, Edna O'Brien's The Little Red Chairs really stunned me.

What is it with Irish women writers? They are all so talented.

Have you read Elizabeth Strout? She is one of my favourite authors. I'd put her in the category you've just described. I've only read one Maggie O'Farrell book - Hamnet - and I hated it, because, like you said, the language is so ornate, and I found so many of her descriptions frustrating and unnecessary. I also really disliked the witchy, fey characterisation of Shakespeare's wife.

I've never read any Lucy Caldwell books. Off to check if my library has any of her books...

Louise Kennedy’s short stories, The End of the World is a Cul de Sac, are better than Trespasses, for me. Other novels by Irish and NI women writers — Anne Enright’s The Forgotten Waltz, The Gathering, Actress or The Green Road, nearly anything by Edna O’Brien, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne’s short stories, Anna Burns’ Milkman, Eimear MacBride’s The Lesser Bohemians?

Oh I love Irish writers and am now going to look at those new recommendations to me thankyou.
I also loved Trespasses my Dad is from the North of Ireland and it evoked so many memories for me.
Can I recommend Clare Keegan - fantastic writer and also Donal Ryan if we are letting any men in!!

If you enjoy short stories, Sinead Gleeson has edited a number of anthologies that I liked:

The Glass Shore - women from Northern Ireland
The Long Gaze Back - Irish women writers
The Art of the Glimpse - 100 stories! female and male writers

Lucy Caldwell, Being Various is an anthology of recent short stories from, I think, 2019 - it's an annual anthology and others in the series have been edited by Kevin Barry and Joseph O'Connor. I've borrowed all of these except Being Various (a charity shop advance readers copy - sent to reviewers) from the library

It's a great book. And also I would recommend Clare Keegan - spare simple writing but a fantastic storyteller