
Trespasses
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Brid Brennan
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By:
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Louise Kennedy
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION
“Brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking.”—J.Courtney Sullivan, New York Times Book Review
“TRESPASSES vaults Kennedy into the ranks of such contemporary masters as McCann, Claire Keegan, Colin Barrett, and fellow Sligo resident, Kevin Barry.”—Oprah Daily
Set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a shattering novel about a young woman caught between allegiance to community and a dangerous passion.
Amid daily reports of violence, Cushla lives a quiet life with her mother in a small town near Belfast, teaching at a parochial school and moonlighting at her family’s pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a Protestant barrister who’s made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment, Cushla lets herself get drawn in by him and his sophisticated world, and an affair ignites. Then the father of a student is savagely beaten, setting in motion a chain reaction that will threaten everything, and everyone, Cushla most wants to protect.
©2022 Louise Kennedy (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
“Brilliant, beautiful, heartbreaking. . . A rising sense of tension throughout comes to a shocking head. 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. And that reading about a long and difficult period from the recent past feels not like history, but like a warning.”—J.Courtney Sullivan, New York Times Book Review
“Brilliantly depicted. . . . Kennedy has written a captivating first novel which manages to be beautiful and devastating in equal measure.”—The Washington Post
“Absorbing. . . . vivid, skillful. . . . wise far beyond its first book status, Trespasses vaults Kennedy into the ranks of such contemporary masters as McCann, Claire Keegan, . . . [and] Kevin Barry.”—Oprah Daily
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Brilliant historical fiction
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Boring!!!
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Love this contemporary Historic Novel
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Kennedy’s writing is exquisite—her pacing deliberate yet compelling, her characters heartbreakingly real. The emotional weight of the story is profound, balancing love and loss, hope and despair, in a way that lingers long after listening. The narration made every moment feel immediate, drawing me into the world so completely that I felt like I was living alongside the characters.
A truly mesmerizing listen—enchanting, believable, and deeply moving. Highly recommend!
A Hauntingly Beautiful Performance
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Loved it!
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Wonderful!
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Didn’t Draw Me In
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Absolutely beautiful book
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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
Thank you, GR friends Peter and Linda, for encouraging me to get Louise Kennedy’s “Trespasses”. I remain in amazement at how Kennedy blended newsreels along with her moving story about a young catholic schoolteacher during the time of the Troubles in Ireland, 1975. Kennedy showed how people existed, attempting to live “normal” lives when bombs routinely dishevel daily lives.
Cushla is a young teacher at a Catholic school. Her family owns a bar that her brother manages after her father’s tragic death. Her mother has fallen to the drink. Cushla helps at the bar in addition to caring for her dipsomaniac mother. Cushla has taken a particular caring attitude towards a young boy in her charge, Davy, who is a playground target. Adding to Davy’s problems is that he lives amongst Protestants. His father was badly injured, rendering him unable to work. His mother does her best, but she could use help.
At the start of the story, Cushla is working at the bar when she notices a man, Michael Agnew. She ascertains that he’s a Protestant (Cushla is Catholic) and he’s married. He’s a barrister who is known to defend wrongfully accused Catholic men. He persuades her to help a group of his friends to learn how to speak Irish. From here, a romance is formed.
Kennedy perfectly captures how a young woman could be attracted to a man twice her age. Cushla is the protagonist who takes the reader through her daily emotional journey. From the moment she awakes, she sees violence and fear. Yet she’s a schoolteacher who is surrounded by youthful innocence, and Kennedy cleverly peppers the story with their much-needed exuberance and simplicity. She returns home to deal with her increasingly drunken mother. School has its own hazards with pedophile, predatory and mercenary priests. You know the type, the ones who encourage “private catechism”. The Father Slattery in this story is the doppelganger to my hometown priest, Father Fox!
I listened to the audio, brilliantly narrated by Brid Brennan. Her voice brought life to the characters. If I had it to do over, I would have accompanied the audio with reading. Kennedy’s prose is such that I wanted to see it so I could get the full affect. I did rewind many times. After I completed the audio, I automatically went to the beginning, to listen again to the story. The ending will elicit a tear.
Loved it
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Simple and moving
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