Description

1994, the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent activity protesting British rule, a community plays out its end game.

Francie, a principled elder of the cause, has authorised the murder of a policeman; his teenage henchmen are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square, the Widow Donnelly protests because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, the daughter of a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her. And pathological Handy Byrne, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes.

From its dramatic first chapter, Cross is an extraordinary evocation of the loyalties and divisions within a town governed by its own variety of law, where violence is rewarded and complicity is second nature. It is a complex tale of betrayal and brutality at the height of the Troubles, a moving, powerful and empathetic lament for a community that has lost its way in its battle for the nation.

Publisher Review

A thrillingly tense read… a novel of riveting clarity and international relevance for our turbulent times — Claire Kilroy An intricately plotted game of cat and mouse where it’s never clear who’ll turn out to be the cat and who the mouse – a novel which brings Austin Duffy’s distinctive blend of black humour and moral seriousness to the literature of the Troubles — Carys Davies Duffy is a writer everyone should be reading, starting with Cross – a jolting, gut-punch of a book in which Duffy masterfully captures how a state of perpetual conflict curdles life on individual, communal and even environmental levels, leaving no one and no place unscathed — Noel O Regan A tremendous novel, powerful and compelling, written with great gritty authenticity — William Boyd