Cross

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Description

1994, the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent protest against British rule, a community plays out its end game.

Francie, a principled elder of the cause, has authorised the murder of a policeman; his teenage henchmen are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square, the Widow Donnelly protests because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, the daughter of a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her, and pathological Handy Byrne, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control. Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes.

Cross is an extraordinary act of ventriloquism, intimately capturing the language, humour, loyalties and divisions within a lawless town, where violence is rewarded and complicity is second nature. It is an intricate tale of betrayal and brutality at the height of the Troubles, a moving, powerful and empathetic lament for a community that has lost its way in its battle for the nation.

Reviews

A thrillingly tense read... a novel of riveting clarity and international relevance for our turbulent times -- Claire Kilroy
An intricately plotted game of cat and mouse where it's never clear who'll turn out to be the cat and who the mouse - a novel which brings Austin Duffy's distinctive blend of black humour and moral seriousness to the literature of the Troubles -- Carys Davies
Duffy is a writer everyone should be reading, starting with Cross - a jolting, gut-punch of a book in which Duffy masterfully captures how a state of perpetual conflict curdles life on individual, communal and even environmental levels, leaving no one and no place unscathed -- Noel O Regan
A tremendous novel, powerful and compelling, written with great gritty authenticity -- William Boyd

Author Bio

AUSTIN DUFFY's debut novel This Living and Immortal Thing was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and was runner-up for the McKitterick Prize. He is also the author of Ten Days, which was shortlisted for the Diverse Awards, and The Night Interns, which was an Irish Times bestseller. He is a practising medical oncologist and lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.