Charleen Hurtubise

Exploring the fine line between dishonesty and reinvention, Saoirse is an evocative and compelling story of a woman perpetually in flight. A book for fans of Trespasses by Louise Kennedy and Barbara's Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead. In the wilds of Donegal, Ireland, 1999, Saoirse is an artist living an outwardly idyllic life. Her tender husband Daithí and two beloved daughters are regular subjects for her work, and in them she has found the safe home that she has always longed for. She tends not to talk about her past, and those that love her have learned to accept that the full story is too painful for her to disclose. When her Dublin exhibition unexpectedly wins a prestigious award that invites a swarm of publicity, Saoirse is left panic stricken. The unanticipated recognition threatens to expose a decade's worth of buried memories and past crimes. Because what her family and friends don't know is that Saoirse has been on the run since she was seventeen, she has stolen an identity to survive, and whilst Ireland might now be her home, it wasn't her first - and now her past life is poised to reclaim her. The novel weaves between flashbacks to a complicated childhood in Michigan, and Saoirse's journey to and in Ireland to forge safety for herself.

The luminous debut novel from one of Ireland's finest storytellers Michigan, 1985. The drowning of a teenage girl causes ripples in the small town of Kettle Lake, though for most the waters settle quickly. For sixteen year old Joanne Kennedy, however, the tragedy dredges up untold secrets and causes her mother to drift farther from reality and her family. When troubled newcomer Lucinda arrives in town, she offers Joanne a chance of real friendship, and together the teenagers push against the boundaries of family, self-image, and their sexuality during the tension of a long, stifling summer. But the undercurrents of past harms continuously threaten to drag Joanne and those around her under...