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

* 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 *
* SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2022 *
* AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2022 *
* A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME *
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‘Like Sally Rooney mixed with a political thriller’ RUSSELL KANE
‘Intense, unflinchingly honest, it broke my heart a million times’ MARIAN KEYES
‘Absolutely loved it’ MAX PORTER
‘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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A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: THE TIMES * SUNDAY TIMES * GUARDIAN * TELEGRAPH * NEW STATESMAN * DAILY MAIL * IRISH TIMES * IRISH INDEPENDENT * BELFAST TELEGRAPH

Publisher Review

Gut-wrenchingly powerful . . . Blistering . . . Thrillingly readable, bursting with both anger and a touching compassion for (most of) the people caught up in a situation they're powerless to change . . . It's clear that in Louise Kennedy we have a new literary star * Reader's Digest * A deeply impressive novel . . . [Kennedy] writes beautifully about love, awkward love, love between two people who the more censorious in our midst might say have no business being in love . . . It feels true and honest, heartbreaking and tender . . . I love it -- Ronan Bennett Kennedy's writing is beautiful and I will continue to read everything she publishes -- Sarah Moss Stunningly brilliant -- Liz Nugent I hardly have words for how viscerally this book affected me, how much it moved me. Pitch-perfect in its evocation of its time and place, unflinching in the rawness of its longing, Trespasses is an extraordinary read - it will break your heart -- Lucy Caldwell A layered, involving story, told with artfully quiet symbolism and remarkable narrative control * Observer * I stayed up until six a.m. ON A WEEKNIGHT to finish it. I was poleaxed by it. I grew up in 1970s Northern Ireland so I recognise everything in it, but I have never read a novel that so faithfully captures it. Louise Kennedy dares to write things that readers might find a bit shocking - the crude and the cruel. It's raw. But I was surprised at the amount of kindness shown too. She does not stint -- Diana Henry A tale of female sacrifice . . . Expect hints of Derry Girls * Elle * Louise Kennedy's Trespasses touches tenderly and hits hard - a compulsively readable love story which is also a lament for a society agonizingly divided against itself. Every word rings true -- Emma Donoghue Trespasses is a beautiful, devastating novel. It feels real and true, and it loves its characters, utterly authentic people trying to live ordinary lives in desperate times. This book will last -- Nick Hornby [Louise Kennedy's] debut novel is incredible. Intense, unflinchingly honest, it broke my heart a million times, I was consumed by it -- Marian Keyes I had high hopes for this but it has surpassed them. Trespasses by Louise Kennedy feels real and raw. It's a tenderly told but unsentimental story of a love affair but also an unflinchingly honest portrait of a society seething with hatred and fear -- Martin Doyle