There is nothing special about the day Cushla meets Michael, a married Protestant from Belfast, in the pub owned by her family. But here, in 1970s Ireland, love is never far from violence, and this encounter will change both of their lives forever.
A 2022 Book of the Year for: The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, New Statesman, Irish Times, Irish Independent, Belfast Telegraph, Daily Mail and Washington Post.
If you love Ireland and you are keen on recent history, join this book club to immerse yourself in the rough period of the Troubles (or Northern Ireland conflict): a violent confrontation between the Protestant unionists (loyalists), who wanted the province to remain part of the United Kingdom, and the Roman Catholic nationalists (republicans), who desired Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland. This conflict lasted from the late 1960s until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. This is the setting for a powerful and dramatic love story between a protestant lawyer and a catholic schoolteacher which will captivate you from the very beginning.
The author of the novel, Louise Kennedy, experienced those turbulent times herself, as she was born and raised in Belfast in the late 1960s. Having worked as a chef for 28 years, she only started writing in 2014, after she joined a writing group to please a friend. ‘Tresspasses’ is her first novel and it has dazzled critics and public alike. It won the An Post Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year 2022; it was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2022; an Observer Best Debut Novelist of 2022; shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023; winner of the British Book Awards Book of the Year: Debut Fiction; a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime.
This book club is recommended for students with a very good command of English (C1 – C2 levels). On the 14th of November at 13:00h we will read together the first chapter at the school library and we will explore the historical context. On the second session, on the 19th of December, we will deal with chapters 2-13. The last session will take place on the 6th of February and we will discuss chapters 13-30.
‘Like Sally Rooney mixed with a political thriller’
Russell Kane
‘Intense, unflinchingly honest, it broke my heart a million times’
