The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac: Stories

by Louise Kennedy

Overview

Brilliant, dark stories of women’s lives by “a very major talent” (Joseph O’Connor, Irish Times)

In these visceral, stunningly crafted stories by the author of the much-acclaimed Trespasses, women’s lives are etched by poverty—material, emotional, sexual—but also splashed by beauty, sometimes even joy, as they search for the good in the cards they’ve been dealt.

A wife is abandoned by her new husband in a derelict housing estate, with blood on her hands. An expectant mother’s worst fears about her husband’s entanglement with a teenage girl are confirmed. A sister is tormented by visions of the man her brother murdered during the Troubles. A woman struggles to forgive herself after an abortion threatens to destroy her marriage. Plumbing the depths of intimacy, violence, and redemption, these stories are “dazzling, heartbreaking . . . keen to share the lessons of a lifetime” (Guardian).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593540923
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/05/2023
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	49,654
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Louise Kennedy grew up near Belfast. The author of the novel Trespasses, she has written for The Guardian, The Irish Times, and BBC Radio 4. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a chef for almost thirty years. She lives in Sligo, Ireland.

Editorial Reviews

09/11/2023

Irish novelist Kennedy (Trespasses) centers these incisive stories on women at precipitous turning points in their lives. Sarah, the protagonist of the title story, resides in a derelict housing estate built by her husband, Davey, before he ran off. She learns from a neighbor that she’s known as “the gangster’s moll from down the hill,” the nickname earned because of Davey’s record as a neglectful landlord, and she bides her time before the estate is repossessed. Though most of the stories unfold in an Ireland clinging to past glories, Kennedy sometimes goes afield, as in the wry “Beyond Carthage,” in which Therese, recovering from breast cancer surgery and estranged from her husband, suffers through a rainy and depressing vacation with a frequently inebriated friend; Therese had been thinking of a place like the Canary Islands, but instead they’re at a gloomy concrete resort in Tunisia during the “wrong season.” The masterly and compassionate “Garland Sunday” epitomizes Kennedy’s aptitude for contrasting traditional and contemporary Irish sensibilities, as 40-something Orla, whose husband has turned against her because she chose to have an abortion, attempts to win him back at a Gaelic festival, where she’s struck by her connection to the “unearthly” women of ancient folklore, one of whom commits infanticide. Each story reverberates with a sense of the far-reaching effect of choices made or imposed. It adds up to a remarkable and cohesive collection. Agent: Eleanor Birne, PEW Literary. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The End of the World is a Cul de Sac:

“Kennedy’s droll wit and spot-on dialogue brilliantly illuminate her characters’ travails.” —New York Times Book Review

“These gritty stories are marked by dark wit and avid artistry. . . . Literature with backbone.” —Boston Globe

“These are lives in progress, bolstered by richly imagined back stories, that we dip into for a critical moment or stage…Kennedy packs these stories with life. . . entrancing.” —Star-Tribune

“Quietly bleak and deliciously detailed.” —Shondaland

“Dazzling. . . . Brace for a tense and provocative examination of women’s lives, and how perseverance can push you through the direst circumstances.” —Real Simple

“A contemporary publishing unicorn: a work of extraordinary craftsmanship, written by someone who knows something about life.” —Compact Magazine

“This taut, sometimes surreal collection is all about women's lives and it dives to gut-twisting depths and soars to dizzying heights. Perfect for women and anyone who's ever met one.” —Good Housekeeping

“One of the most exciting voices in Irish literature.” —Chicago Review of Books

“Irish in its lyricism and landscape, universal in its portrayal of the vagaries of the heart.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“Incisive stories [of] women at precipitous turning points in their lives. … Each story reverberates with a sense of the far-reaching effect of choices made or imposed. It adds up to a remarkable and cohesive collection.” —Publishers Weekly

“Like fifteen novels squeezed between two covers, ready to blow your mind. The only other writer I can think of who packs this much moving, terrible life into each story is Alice Munro.” —Emma Donoghue

“Dazzling, heartbreaking . . . these fifteen taut tales recall Annie Proulx at her best: salty, wise, droll and keen to share the lessons of a lifetime.” —Guardian

“Gritty, bitter, hard-won. . . Kennedy's voice, and her unforgiving gaze, are electric.” —Sunday Times (London)

“I love Kennedy's vividly conjured reality. Her prose is so alive, I am surprised that the book stays shut when you close it.” —Anne Enright

“Darkly funny, beautifully crafted, intense - this is an outstanding first collection from a natural story writer” —Kevin Barry

From the Publisher

Award-winning Irish actor Brid Brennan employs her melodic contralto to fine effect in her excellent narration of Louise Kennedy's debut short story collection. Uncompromising and often dark, with flashes of humor, the stories explore the lives of women in Ireland--addressing issues of identity, poverty, marriage, and sexuality. Brennan won an Earphones Award for her performance of Kennedy's debut novel, TRESPASSES, and she understands the author's mix of visceral and understated. Without building many voices, Brennan gives characters just enough individuality for listeners to feel in their conversation hope, intimidation, happiness, or pain. When necessary, she adds a hint of emotional distance to her naturally warm voice--a kindness that helps listeners through the moments of grief in this memorable collection. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2023 - AudioFile

★ 2023-09-09
How much agency does a person have, especially in moments of turmoil, is the question at the heart of Kennedy’s first volume of short stories, set in a contemporary Ireland divided by wealth and education.

Characters here are defined as straining to get by or complacently secure. In “Hunter-Gatherers,” a bookish woman new to rural life is aggravated both by her gamekeeper husband’s inept attempts at “self-sufficiency” and his rich, obnoxious hunting clients; in “What the Birds Heard,” a professional in data science runs away from her husband to a gentrified cottage on the coast and into the temporary arms of a local workman who disdains her as “posh.” Feeling trapped, these and many of Kennedy’s women exhibit passive resentment toward the men in their lives. Others face their own complicity in the messes the men create. In the title story, an abandoned wife deals with the financial disaster her husband created but also her guilt at having turned a blind eye when she could have made a difference, while the mistrustful pregnant farm wife in “Imbolc” wishes she’d never suggested her husband grow pot to cover their debts. Kennedy sometimes challenges typical assumptions. In “Belladonna,” a working-class girl misreads—as does the reader—the inner workings of her neighbors’ marriage. Similarly, in “Gibraltar,” empathy shifts unexpectedly from the dissatisfied wife toward her coarse, self-made husband, who remains devoted to his unloving wife and to the daughter he knows is not biologically his. Portraits of men in emotional turmoil—particularly the forester in “Wolf Point,” who accepts that his young English wife is an unfit mother—are particularly moving in a book mostly focused on women, as are fleeting moments of union between men and women surrounding their children. “Garland Sunday,” about a damaged marriage, ends the book on an oddly hopeful note celebrating forgiveness and resilience.

Irish in its lyricism and landscape, universal in its portrayal of the vagaries of the heart.

Kirkus Reviews