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

By Louise Kennedy

Brilliant, dark stories of women’s lives by “a very major talent” (Joseph OConnor, 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).

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Published Dec 5, 2023

304 pages

Average rating: 5.67

3 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

ediehas
Feb 28, 2025
2/10 stars
feel bad ranking this so low but it really is a me thing. great writing and I really did enjoy three of the stories a lot in the middle, but could not get into the others that flanked them.

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