Cross

By: Austin Duffy

Narrated by: Ruairi Conaghan

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

1994, the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross, after decades of violent activity protesting British rule, a community plays out its end game.

Francie, a principled elder of the cause, has authorised the murder of a policeman – his teenage henchmen are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square, the Widow Donnelly protests because her son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy, the daughter of a Protestant, is trying to find her place among a people who ignore her. And pathological Handy Byrne, whose marksmanship makes him a valuable weapon, is out of control.

Meanwhile, paranoia is growing because operations are beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout, but no one is willing to accept the evidence before their eyes.

From its dramatic first chapter, Cross is an extraordinary evocation of the loyalties and divisions within a town governed by its own variety of law, where violence is rewarded and complicity is second nature.

©2024 Austin Duffy (P)2024 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

'A tremendous novel, powerful and compelling, written with great gritty authenticity.' (William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart)

'A thrillingly tense read … a novel of riveting clarity and international relevance for our turbulent times.' (Claire Kilroy, award-winning author of All Summer)

'There comes a point in a hunger strike, remarks an IRA operative in Cross, when a body begins to smell, ‘on account of the body starting to eat itself’. It’s a deeply resonant image, and a powerful metaphor for what happens in the book’s eponymous Northern Irish border town when the 1994 ceasefire forces it to make a reckoning with its violent past and uncertain future. It’s an intricately plotted game of cat and mouse where it’s never clear who’ll turn out to be the cat and who the mouse – a novel which brings Austin Duffy’s distinctive blend of black humour and moral seriousness to the literature of the Troubles.' (Carys Davies, author of Clear)