Discovering where you come from can be as intoxicating as falling in love. For Kieran, it's his Irish roots; for Michael, it's Kieran's girlfriend; for Kieran's girlfriend, it's God. Some infatuations are so explosive it takes years for the dust to settle. It's 1982, the summer is oppressive, the future uncertain, and Thatcher inescapable. Twin brothers Michael and Kieran—gasping for air in the middle of an eccentric family that only outsiders find enchanting—are visiting their grandparents in County Cork. The questions and entanglements born of that stifling trip are to shape the rest of their lives. Returning to Britain, the brothers don't know whether to call themselves English or Irish. Twenty years later, a fiery young woman doesn't know which of them to call Dad. Shifting between periods of threat and unrest, Besotted is a bold novel of passion, religion, and politics. It is about life's flash points, the quiet violence that can shape us, the pressures of expectation, and the seduction of belonging—whatever the cost.
