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Trespasses

The most beautiful, devastating love story you’ll read this year

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Trespasses

By: Louise Kennedy
Narrated by: Brid Brennan
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Bloomsbury presents Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, read by Brid Brennan.

**SOON TO BE A MAJOR TV SERIES – COMING SOON TO CHANNEL 4**

THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER (The Times), SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2023

'Intense, unflinchingly honest, it broke my heart a million times' MARIAN KEYES
'A beautiful, devastating novel' NICK HORNBY

One by one, she undid each event, each decision, each choice.
If Davy had remembered to put on a coat.
If Seamie McGeown had not found himself alone on a dark street.
If Michael Agnew had not walked through the door of the pub on a quiet night in February in his white shirt.

There is nothing special about the day Cushla meets Michael, a married man from Belfast, in the pub owned by her family. But here, love is never far from violence, and this encounter will change both of their lives forever.

As people get up each morning and go to work, school, church or the pub, the daily news rolls in of another car bomb exploded, another man beaten, killed or left for dead. In the class Cushla teaches, the vocabulary of seven-year-old children now includes phrases like ‘petrol bomb’ and ‘rubber bullets’. And as she is forced to tread lines she never thought she would cross, tensions in the town are escalating, threatening to destroy all she is working to hold together.

Tender and shocking, Trespasses is an unforgettable debut of people trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times.
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* WINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR: DEBUT FICTION *
* WINNER OF THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022 *
* WINNER OF THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE 2023 *
* SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022 *
* AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2022 *
* A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME *
* THE CRITICS' MOST-PICKED BOOK OF THE YEAR*(P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Anthologies & Short Stories Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Political Short Stories World Literature Thought-Provoking Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking
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Critic reviews

A deftly woven novel, which I think will astonish you (Bella Mackie, Women's Prize for Fiction 2023, judges comments)
Sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. This is an unashamedly conventional realist novel, but such an exceptional one that it’s bound to rekindle even the most cynical reader’s appreciation of the form . . . Spellbindingly, heartbreakingly unforgettable
Not many novels mix juicy romance and wartime violence. War-induced longing is a common fictional occurrence – consider Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong, or, to a lesser degree, Ian McEwan’s Atonement – but a vivid, sexy, not-doomed-feeling love story that also takes a war zone as a central subject rather than simply a setting is rarer
A first novel that reads nothing like one, this is a tender, fiercely beautiful story . . . Every finely grooved detail here feels authentic’
Hands down the best book this year was Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. There has been praise for Kennedy’s eye in recreating the Belfast of the mid-70s, but it is the precision of the emotional detail that holds the readers attention: after a while, you forget to exhale
We know that civil wars are made up of thousands of small tragedies. But I know few novels that convey the grim predictability of everyday violence during that period so well. Kennedy’s careful attention is a welcome counter to Brexit’s careless disregard of lives and loves lost
Brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking . . . I am not a crier, but by the final pages of Trespasses I was in tears. It’s a testament to Kennedy’s talents that we come to love and care so much about her characters
Thrilling, wise, and moving, Trespasses is a remarkable novel about the wages of love in a time marked by brutality, strife, and above all, a will to hope. A totally absorbing read (Brandon Taylor, author of REAL LIFE and FILTHY ANIMALS)
Absorbing . . . Wise far beyond its first book status, Trespasses vaults Kennedy into the ranks of such contemporary masters as McCann, Claire Keegan, Colin Barrett, and fellow Sligo resident, Kevin Barry
Brilliantly depicted . . . Kennedy has written a captivating first novel which manages to be beautiful and devastating in equal measure
Kennedy’s powerful writing, tragic humour and vivid characters will move and haunt you
When I want help there’s non-fiction but when I want truth, I go to fiction . . . Louise Kennedy has smashed it out the park with Trespasses. This is a love story for people that would normally watch political thrillers or historical thrillers . . . You can feel the cigarette smoke, you can taste the Irish stew bubbling, you can feel the carpet, and the tension ratchets. It’s plotty, it’s scary, it’s full of eroticism, it’s like Sally Rooney mixed with a political thriller. I love it (Russell Kane, Steph’s Packed Lunch)
All stars
Most relevant
A brilliant story blending dark history with love, family issues and a good dose of Northern Irish humour. I loved this book and didn’t want it to end.

Brilliant book

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I lost all sense of time listening to this book by Louise Kennedy. I grew up during the troubles in Belfast but haven’t lived there in almost 40 years. Trespasses took me back home. The story gripped me from the outset. The characters are complex and captivating. Just Brilliant.

Just Brilliant

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I listen to a lot of books on Audible, this s one of the best! It was honest, in places harsh, the characters were easy to like or dislike. Narration fabulos

Stunning

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A beautiful story interwoven with love romance suspense and family drama ! Narrator was fantastic she managed to switch between voices seamlessly and you really felt you were there with each character and could feel every emotion they felt. Louise Kennedy you are a sublime talent. Thank you for this beautiful piece of work . Camilla Marks

Beautiful Story Telling! I am so sorry it’s over

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A beautiful read. The narrator is great. I especially love the voice as little Davy. A sensitive and balanced insight into the troubles and divisions. I very much enjoyed this well written story. Thank you Louise Kennedy.

Heartbreaking and beautiful

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