Welcome to Litsy!

Beautifully written, a light touch that nonetheless brings the pain and fear of Northern Ireland at the peak of the troubles to life. Cushla is not an easy to like protagonist but her challenges, her ambiguous relationship with her religion, her deep care for her student soften off the edges of some of her poorer decisions. Would be a five star read but for the fact I was a bit icked out by the ‘great love story‘ which felt v unhealthy to me

Cushla, a young Catholic woman, starts a relationship with an older married Protestant man during the Troubles in Ireland. Although they don‘t live in the heart of the violence, the relationship is not without danger and a series of seemingly unrelated events creates chaos. I found this a fascinating lens with which to look at how the Troubles and the prejudice affected everyone during the period, even those not in Belfast.

I enjoyed going back to 1970‘s Northern Ireland, a time & place I don‘t read about often. Cushla is a teacher by day and a bar maid at her family‘s pub in the evenings, living a quiet life with her alcoholic mom when she meets Michael. A secret affair begins…

14-26 Nov 2023
Belfast 1975. A young Catholic school teacher who works shifts in her family pub embarks on an affair with a married, middle aged and Protestant barrister. It is intimated at the outset that he becomes another victim of the Troubles.
All of which might make it seem this book is predictable and routine. But somehow it is not. The writing is wonderful and Cushla is a flawed but fully rendered protagonist, as are many other characters.

Just starting to really enjoy this when I found my hardcover version goes from page 54 back to 23! (It then proceeds to page 54 again before skipping to 87). Has this happened to others? Very tempted to keep reading or to start the audio but am going to try to be patient and start something else whilst waiting the 5+ weeks for the bookseller to send another version.

I hated this SO MUCH, it's meant to be a love story but it is so problematic that the only reason I didn't DNF is because I thought that she'd realise and break up. He is older than her, which on itself wouldn't be a problem if he didn't know her father and knew her as a child.First time they are together he tells her that he was hoping to deflower her and after they have sex he says "so it's true that catholic girls are nymphomaniacs" ⬇️⬇️

This was not quite as good as the reviews had me believe. Whilst the writing is spot on and carefully portrays Belfast during the troubles I never quite felt the build up to the tragedy you knew was on its way, was effective. It just felt a bit flat for me. However from a historical point of view it was brilliant and I felt the feelings of the characters and their behaviours brought a real depth to the description. A solid read but not a rave!

Will you stick with it? he said.
Yeah. I hate not finishing a book.
That‘s a good policy. Although sometimes I think life‘s too short.
📚🥃🚬

This book is fantastic. I love this new trend of writing books set in N Ireland during the "Troubles." Milkman is still my fav, but this one might be my second choice.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Life has been kicking my butt lately but I‘ve still managed to read a smidge. I absolutely loved this. The love story was definitely the weakest element for me. The true highlight was Kennedy‘s wonderfully evocative portrait of a time, place, and community. Thanks again, Helen! 😘

I loved it! Cushla is a young teacher in Northern Ireland during the troubles. She gets hot and heavy with an older married man. She was easy to relate to. There were moments I wished it were more in depth or complex. Overall it‘s a winner.

#womensprize short listed
This is very well done. The writing, setting, characters are all rich and haunting. Set in Ireland during The Troubles Cushla and Michael are having an affair.
The book is dark - and some will not like it due to lack of quotation marks - alcoholism, affairs, civil war. But it is also a bit sweet as she tries to care for the family of a student and her ill mother.
It took me longer to read than it should have but 4⭐

“Why are you so dirty? Said Gina. For God‘s sake, said
Crushla, turning the gas on under the water again. Michael had driven her to a derelict farmhouse. He‘d pulled her from the passenger seat and slapped her palms onto the roof of his car. She didn‘t know if she enjoyed it, but she loved the way he looked at her right before he hauled the gusset of her knickers aside and fucked her. “. 💄

“I felt stupid. Your friends must think I‘m pathetic. She knew the kiss was coming but was surprised by its clumsiness, the clink of his teeth against hers, the scrape of his chin.It made her feel tender towards him and she found herself kissing him back gently to soothe him. He withdrew his hand and rubbed it across his face.My circumstances are complicated,he said. I realize how hackneyed that must sound. I won‘t always be able to get away”.💋

Everyone raves about this book, but it didn‘t quite work for me. I thought the setting of Belfast and the background of the troubles was done really well, but I was never grabbed by the central storyline, which made the whole book fall flat.

“Michael pushed his plate away and thanked Crushla. He pointed vaguely at the bag from the bookshop. Is that yours? He said. Yeah. She passed it to him, regretting having drawn a rainbow of tester lipstick on the back of her hand in Boots earlier. Ah, he said, when it was out of the bag. I‘ve read this. She had bought a copy of “The Black Prince” by Iris Murdoch because it looked like hard work and might stop her obsessing about him”.

Probably the best book I‘ve read this year. The Troubles are as much a character in this book as the people in it.Chusla lives with her mother , helps out at the family‘s pub.You feel the hope that she feels, that the children she teaches live to see better times. When she meets a handsome man in the family pub, she can‘t help her interest & things will get beyond complicated. A compelling read.

I bought this book at Dublin airport and I couldn‘t put it down until I finished it. The conflict in Northern Ireland is at the heart of the story along with the personal stories of the characters who suffer inevitably from the conflict and their own struggles.

Really enjoyed this atmospheric novel set in Belfast area during The Troubles. Still, is there an Irish novel with a happy ending? Asking for a friend….

#independentbookstoreday 🥳🥳🥳🥳

An expertly narrated audiobook set in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. This is another setting that‘s been explored extensively, but what a wonderful addition to the period. Cushla is a young teacher caring for her students, alcoholic mother, and works at her family‘s bar in the evenings. She becomes romantically entangled with an older man, which is the main focus of the book. Also, that cover art 😍

V good.

https://womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/2023-prize
#WomensPrize #Shortlist #Ireland

It's late Sunday afternoon and I am going to drink some off brand Irish cream with my coffee while digging into my next #womensprizelonglist title.
Sponsored by Bailey's but drinking Costco 🤣

For the first 2/3s of the book the main and most interesting character is Northern Ireland itself. It's bleak and compelling. So I didn't mind that the plot wasn't all that. Then the final third is a rush of grief (but you already knew it wouldn't end well) and rage. There are a few characters there that I would like to bitch-slap in righteous anger, to put it mildly. I have a feeling this one will stay with me.

#WomensPrize 2023 #longlist

Jeez, I'm 87% into this book and The Cranberries turn up in my playlist rotation. Ode to My Family. I am going to be sobbing on the floor in a minute. All I need is for Zombie to play next. 😭

Fantastic. A young woman, a teacher who cares for her students & tries to support one particular family, and has to care for her mother who is often drunk. She begins an affair with a married man which her brother, who runs the family bar, warns her about. However, the main character for me was Northern Ireland. This story is the first I‘ve read in which I viscerally felt smack dab in the midst of the claustrophobia and violence of The Troubles.

This was a compulsive read where I just had to keep on reading to find out what happened next.

Set during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Cushla helps her brother out in the bar and also works as a teacher. She starts an affair with a married man. At the same time she tries to help one of her pupils.

5th read from the #WomensLongList

Well this one will break your heart. At first a quiet story of Cushla in Northern Ireland in the 1970s, surrounded by the awful reality of the Troubles. She falls for a married man, Michael, a Protestant barrister fighting for the rights of young Catholic men. I was completely gripped and couldn‘t put it down. The final third left me reeling. This is not an easy story to read, but there was a tenderness to the writing that I loved.

I enjoyed this one. A compulsive read , Louise Kennedy really tuned into the atmosphere of the time, 1970‘s Belfast. I was on tender hooks the whole time waiting for something to happen ❤️💔

Really liked the window into Northern Ireland in the 70s. Beautiful and tragic story, really liked the protagonist. She is relatable and kind and strong and insecure. Would recommend

On my short list for the #WomensPrize. The mention of a few 70‘s song really tied me into the time period when I knew little about Ireland and the troubles. I loved Cushla as she fell in love and as she did so many good things but not considered the “right” things. Never easy to read about that time.

#TBRTarot #Onewordtitle
#52weeks #samenameasauthor #Louise

Fabulous book. Recommended.
(Something in my eye though.)

#WomensPrize #Longlist

Oh no, I'm worried about what's going to happen to these characters...

This month was dedicated to slow pace, character driven with dysfunctional family novels. Most of them by Irish authors which suggest that I like that writing style. I liked this novel. One of the #Women‘s fiction prizelonglist novels. This is about Cushla and her forbidden relationship with Michael Agnew a barrister. About how much harm religious prejudices can make and how dangerous can be to defend the injustice. ⬇️

The body of a man was found off the Shore Road by a woman out walking her dog.
I wouldn‘t thank you for a dog, said Gina. You‘d be odds-on to find a corpse

It wasn't in Belfast, he said. A booby-trap bomb that was intended for a British Army foot patrol exploded prematurely, killing two boys near the border. They died instantly.

Booby trap. Incendiary device. Gelignite. Nitroglycerine. Petrol bomb. Rubber bullets. Saracen. Internment. The Special Powers Act. Vanguard. The vocabulary of a seven-year-old child now.

Hope to get to both of these in April. I have planned to read Honor every month since January but it keeps getting bumped. #AuldLangSpine I tried to listen to Trespasses on audio and it didn‘t work for me so hoping print will be better. #WomensPrize

#TBRTarot @CBee

I cannot begin to say how much I liked this book. Having read many fiction & non-fiction books & articles about the troubles in Ireland this book gives a very personal view of how tenuous life was for Catholics living in Northern Ireland during those times. After finishing I re-read the opening chapter, so glad I did as that for me was the perfect ending of this wonderful novel.

Lots of good books this month, but the tagged was my favorite. And look! A #bookspinbingo! Having fun with this challenge.

Gina lugged herself upright and took the tray from Cushla. She picked up a piece of toast and bit the centre, her mouth contorting in disgust as she chewed. It could do with more butter, she said.

Butter's bad for you, said Cushla.

It's so dry I'm more likely to choke to death than have a stroke...

#WomensPrizeLonglist2023

It‘s a pick but it‘s depressing. Set in Northern Ireland during the 70‘s. A time and place where who you are and where you come from matters more then your character. An evocative and compelling story of love and kindness thwarted by violent sectarianism.

A story of relationships set during the troubles of Northern Ireland. Great literary fiction- it‘s tender and I enjoyed it more than I expected to.

Now on to my choice for April bookclub, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. 3rd Saturday of each month we meet for brunch in Sacramento CA, however now that I live in Kalamazoo MI I join via Zoom and drool over what is being served up for brunch. We solve many of the worlds issues as well as discuss books including the book for the month. How I miss those Saturdays with my friends.

Wow. This is a beautifully written book. Taking place during the Troubles, there‘s a lot of heartache, but it‘s a fantastic read.

Set in Ireland in the 1970s there is so much turmoil, so the story is not uplifting. I enjoyed the character development in this novel and especially enjoyed young Davey and Cushla's colleague and friend Gerry.

This was so much more than I was expecting. A lot of what I had read about it focused on the affair between Cushla, a Catholic, and the married Protestant Michael, but that is only one facet of her story. I think it does the book a disservice to call it the story of an affair. It is Cushla's story, her life lived during the Troubles, attempting to navigate family, friendship, live, and community. 👇

Reading in the car while my son has his piano lesson. This has started off really well! #womensprize