Saoirse
by Charleen Hurtubise
14 September 2026
I put this book on my list to look out for when I read Alice’s review of it a few months ago and nabbed it when I spotted it on the library shelf. Enough time had passed since I read the review that I couldn’t remember much of what it was about and I just dived in hoping it was good - and it was!
We meet the title character at the end of the 1990s along with her partner and young children when she’s just been awarded a major art prize. Sounds good! But her first reaction to the learning of the prize is to panic: “If she is not careful, she will give herself away”. It’s clear that something is amiss. The book then darts back to the beginning of the 1990s to show us what is probably amiss: Saoirse fleeing from the US to Ireland on a stolen passport. Most of the rest of the book fills in the gaps before and after that flight.
There’s a lot of abuse involved in the story and an abundance of awful characters in the book. There was a lot of nuance in the presentation of them though (or some of them at least) which seemed true to life - the worst abusers can play decent citizens when other people are watching. It wasn’t a tale of unrelenting darkness and there are plenty of good guys around as well. I always like the way Irish English lifts off the page and takes me to a different place and makes the landscape come alive. I enjoyed the pacing of the story and there was enough I wanted to find out about to keep me turning the pages without it being an actual mystery or keeping me in suspense. It was more about finding out the hows and the whys than the whats.
I’ll definitely be looking out for Hurtubise’s first novel to read as well.
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