We are nearing the finish line in the race to resolve my dispute with the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction Winner! Trespasses by Louise Kennedy is the final work of the 6 shortlisted works up for the winner. Soon dear readers will I reveal why the actual winner, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver is not my winner and why a different author and work of fiction is my winner.

For now, let’s wrap up the shortlist shall we? Trespasses by Louise Kennedy is set in Ireland during “the troubles” or conflict between the Protestant and Catholic communities and the Irish Republican Army is bombing, beating and murdering traitorous community members. The environment of Trespasses is one in which factions mix and mingle at the local pub while conflicts between these countrymen simmer and erupt at border control sites, community gatherings, and in the private homes of citizens. Trespasses is a decent work of Literary Fiction because the opportunity for a protagonist to come of age is offered. Readers can observe the world the protagonist lives in observe flawed families, aggravated patriarchy, impoverished children and the necessity for separations of church and state. The question is does the protagonist take advantage of all that Kennedy offers? Read and see.

Employing Originality as a first principle of judgement, the storyline is not entirely original especially if you might have read, Milkman (former winner of the International Booker award) which is also set in Ireland during the troubles within and among church and state. Like Demon Copperhead, Trespasses places emphasis on children and how the world around them is impacting their lives, but this is a loose strand in this narrative weave.

Readers don’t have to work too hard to sustain the storyline of a young woman who has a teaching career and lives at home with her mum. The young woman lives a somewhat droll routine and also subs at the family pub falls where she falls in with a married man who serves as a barrister and judges problematic cases. Their love story is seedy, but the people who enable them are well drawn archetypes and Kennedy’s portraiture of them is cariacature-like in a gritty sort of way. Taken as a whole, for Originality 🖊️🖊️ 1/2 pens. This simply has been told before and will be told again.

When considering Accessibility Kennedy uses a well appointed balance to give readers light insights into the perspectives of Irish citizens and where they fall in the dichotomy governed by the troubles of the not too distant era. However, a little more sociopolitical insight might give weight to why the conflict exists? Kennedy contrasts the warring factions by way of economic conditions for Catholics vs Protestants. She also points to differences in education, brogue, and some religious freedoms, though most is kept deeply within the people who live and work together by day and prevent freedoms or end lives during the hidden parts of night. In this story somebody might be watching and cataloging who is doing what, then deciding that a life might become dispensable be it child or adult. Pretty heavy stuff and while the occurrences of bombing or murder happens, it’s kind of fleeting and numbing due to Kennedy’s narrative nonchalance. The characters expect and accept whenever the shoe drops—shooting, bombing, outright assasination, and serial marital affairs.The book is accessible but not emotionally moving and good literary fiction takes readers into the emotional depths and readers experience the moves characters make as well as the consequences. Thus, they come of age. Kennedy keeps readers on the surface, peeking in then closing the door and doing so she keeps them quietly naivew. Final, 🖊️🖊️ 1/2 pens .

I liked this book, the portraitures of characters, the glimpses into their daily lives and intimate moments. Kennedy gives a taste of Ireland and conflicts there within but Excellence really suffers when you put all of these criteria together and the holes really hang open causing me to ask and re-ask myself, “Is Trespasses the winner?” The final beat was rushed and entire sections of life not developed and the protagonist did not come of age but rather survived age by way of time. The story died after the funeral (no spoilers identifying who) and because of this 2.5 🖊️🖊️ pens overall.