The End of the World is a Cul de Sac

Author(s): Louise Kennedy

CONTEMPORARY FICTION

The secrets people kept, the lies they told.In these visceral, stunningly crafted stories, people are effortlessly cruel to one another, and the natural world is a primitive salve. Here, women are domestically trapped by predatorial men, Ireland's folklore and politics loom large, and poverty material, emotional, sexual seeps through every crack.A wife is abandoned by her new husband in a ghost estate, with blood on her hands; a young woman is tormented by visions of the man murdered by her brother during the Troubles; a pregnant mother fears the worst as her husband grows illegal cannabis with the help of a vulnerable teenage girl; a woman struggles to forgive herself after an abortion threatens to destroy her marriage.Announcing a major new voice in literary fiction for the twenty-first century, these sharp shocks of stories offer flashes of beauty, and even humour, amidst the harshest of truths.


Product Information

A Dazzling Debut

Marriage, children, mortality and memory are the principal concerns of Louise Kennedy’s dazzling debut collection, and she finds truth in the tiniest details, connections and observations. In “Hunter-Gatherers”, Siobhan and Sid live in the lodge of a grand house in which England’s colonial influence still lingers. When Siobhan blots condensation from the windows with an old towel, the symbolism is clear: it’s the Irish who are left to mop up the mess. In “Silhouette”, a sister is haunted for decades by a murder committed by her brother during the Troubles, his shoes caked with mud as well as the victim’s blood and hair. “It’s grass, you tell yourself. Just grass.”

In many stories the natural world, with its animal appetites and feral, sexual energy, impinges on the urban. A pregnant woman accidentally witnesses her husband commit adultery with an agricultural science student in the lambing shed, shattering her sense of self-worth; while in another story a man shoots a hare that he knows his partner adores: “There was a treacly hole at the front of his head, his eyes were hazel and still.”

With their sensitivity to people’s vulnerabilities and failings, and their sharpness of imagery, these 15 taut tales recall Annie Proulx at her best: salty, wise, droll and keen to share the lessons of a lifetime.

Jude Cook, The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2022/may/18/this-months-best-paperbacks-maggie-shipstead-shon-faye-and-more

General Fields

  • : 9781526623287
  • : Bloomsbury
  • : bloomsbury
  • : 0.326133
  • : April 2021
  • : {"length"=>["8.504"], "width"=>["5.315"], "units"=>["Inches"]}
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Louise Kennedy
  • : Paperback
  • : English
  • : 823.92