Stations
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- £13.99
Publisher Description
**FROM THE PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF TRESPASSES **
A BOOK OF THE AUTUMN IN THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER, COUNTRY & TOWNHOUSE AND MORE
'A transcendent exploration of yearning, transformation and rescue' MIN JIN LEE
'A masterwork ... Brutal and perfect' IRISH TIMES
'It's been a while since I felt this attached' JODIE COMER
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Róisín and Red meet as teenagers in their small Irish hometown in 1982. Brilliant, sharp-tongued and born to slip through the cracks, Red's reputation for trouble precedes him – but Róisín finds herself swept up in his storm, and soon their connection deepens.
When a brush with the law pushes Red into a corner, he escapes their town to start a new life in England. As the years pass, they remain tethered to one another, a fragile thread holding their once fierce friendship together. When Róisín arrives in London, the promise of freedom, of reinvention, and of finding her dear friend calls.
But searching for Red leads Róisín to a truth darker than she could have imagined: when you go looking for someone you may uncover parts of yourself along the way that you'd rather stayed buried. And Red – bright, beautiful Red – might not want to be found at all.
Stations is a devastating story of love and friendship, and a tender portrait of the choices we blithely make when we are young, unaware that the consequences will reverberate throughout our lives.
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'I gulped this down - convinced, fascinated and moved by every page' EMMA DONOGHUE
'I loved it for the way it holds a national sorrow' ANNE ENRIGHT
'Heartbreakingly real and utterly compelling' ROISÍN O'DONNELL
'Moving, compassionate, a touching love story' DAVID NICHOLLS
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Small-town Ireland, 1982: Teenagers Róisín and Red form the kind of intense friendship that shapes the rest of your life. When trouble with the law sends Red fleeing to England, their lives begin moving in different directions. Two years later, Róisín travels to London to visit her estranged father and tracks down her old friend, now living in a Pimlico squat. Their reunion is just one station in lives that remain entangled across the next 25 years. Louise Kennedy first introduced Róisín in a short story, but apparently she wasn’t finished with her—and Stations gives the character a much bigger canvas. The title carries several meanings, from the train and bus stations where important moments play out to social station and even the Stations of the Cross: stumbling, falling and carrying on. Through friendship, love, addiction and regret, Kennedy explores how the choices we make when we’re young can travel with us for decades.
