finished reading

What a beautifully written debut novel about Northern Ireland's Troubles.  What if a different choice was made? Each decision leads to a consequence--and each consequence teeters on life or death.  The reality of life in Belfast is jarring in its brutality and harshness and yet there are moments of humanity and love.  In a Biblical context, the word "trespass" has been translated to mean missing the mark, falling short, or sin, iniquity, or transgression.  This kept running through the back of my mind...

From the publisher:

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. By day she teaches at a parochial school; at night she fills in at her family's pub. There she meets Michael Agnew, a barrister who's made a name for himself defending IRA members. Against her better judgment - Michael is not only Protestant but older, and married - 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.

As tender as it is unflinching, Trespasses is a heart-pounding, heart-rending drama of thwarted love and irreconcilable loyalties, in a place what you come from seems to count more than what you do, or whom you cherish.