{"product_id":"stations-9781526664334","title":"Stations","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe unforgettable new novel from the no. 1 bestselling, Women's Prize-shortlisted author of \u003ci\u003eTrespasses –\u003c\/i\u003e a devastating tale of love, friendship, and the choices that shape our lives\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e**FROM THE PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF \u003ci\u003eTRESPASSES \u003c\/i\u003e**\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA BOOK OF THE AUTUMN IN \u003ci\u003eTHE TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGUARDIAN\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIRISH TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eIRISH EXAMINER\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCOUNTRY \u0026amp; TOWNHOUSE \u003c\/i\u003eAND MORE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Moving, compassionate, a touching love story' \u003c\/b\u003eDAVID NICHOLLS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I gulped this down - convinced, fascinated and moved by every page' \u003c\/b\u003eEMMA DONOGHUE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e transcendent exploration of yearning, transformation and rescue\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e' \u003c\/b\u003eMIN JIN LEE\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e_____\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRóisín and Red meet as teenagers in their small Irish hometown in 1982. Brilliant, sharp-tongued and born to slip through the cracks, Red’s reputation for trouble precedes him – but Róisín finds herself swept up in his storm, and soon their connection deepens. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen a brush with the law pushes Red into a corner, he escapes their town to start a new life in England. As the years pass, they remain tethered to one another, a fragile thread holding their once fierce friendship together. When Róisín arrives in London, the promise of freedom, of reinvention, and of finding her dear friend calls. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut searching for Red leads Róisín to a truth darker than she could have imagined: when you go looking for someone you may uncover parts of yourself along the way that you’d rather stayed buried. And Red – bright, beautiful Red – might not want to be found at all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003eis a devastating story of love and friendship, and a tender portrait of the choices we blithely make when we are young, unaware that the consequences will reverberate throughout our lives.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e_____\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A beautiful novel about loss and being lost' \u003c\/b\u003eNICK HORNBY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'I loved it for the way it holds a national sorrow' \u003c\/b\u003eANNE ENRIGHT\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Heartbreakingly real and utterly compelling' \u003c\/b\u003eROISÍN O'DONNELL\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781526664334\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: London, United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 23.2(H)x15.2(L)x2.6(W)380\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): 380\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cb\u003eLOUISE KENNEDY\u003c\/b\u003e grew up a few miles from Belfast. She is the author of the acclaimed short-story collection, \u003ci\u003eThe End of the World is a Cul de Sac\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the John McGahern Prize. Her debut novel \u003ci\u003eTrespasses \u003c\/i\u003ehas been translated into over twenty languages. A \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller, it won Eason Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, Book of the Year for Debut Fiction at the British Book Awards and the McKitterick Prize. It was also shortlisted for several awards including the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize. In 2025, \u003ci\u003eTrespasses \u003c\/i\u003ewas made into a limited TV series by Channel 4. Before starting her writing career, Kennedy spent nearly thirty years working as a chef. She lives in Sligo.\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003eLouise Kennedy’s brilliant \u003ci\u003eStations\u003c\/i\u003e is a \u003cb\u003emoving and immersive novel about first love, addiction, and regret\u003c\/b\u003e. Smart, propulsive, and emotionally powerful, this narrative is \u003cb\u003ea transcendent exploration of yearning, transformation and rescue.\u003c\/b\u003e -- Min Jin Lee, bestselling author of PACHINKO\u003cbr\u003eWhat a\u003cb\u003e beautiful book\u003c\/b\u003e ... Róisín’s quest for the love of a man who can never reciprocate her own obsessive passion is an odyssey of its own. \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003ewill live in my head for a long time to come\u003c\/b\u003e. -- Liz Nugent, bestselling author of STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND\u003cbr\u003eThis is \u003cb\u003ethe story of a profound, ambiguous love, spanning decades\u003c\/b\u003e, between two wounded emigrants adrift in London. Place and feeling are uncannily tangible. It's \u003cb\u003efunny, perceptive, carnal, laced with startling sentences and tremendously absorbing and revealing.\u003c\/b\u003e Any time I was away from it I missed it. -- Timothy O'Grady, author of I COULD READ THE SKY\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003etakes hold from the first page, it’s all raw and it’s all true\u003c\/b\u003e. You’re pitched straight into the story, \u003cb\u003eheart-first\u003c\/b\u003e. Only later does the social history in the novel occur to you: in \u003cb\u003evivid scenes\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003ereconstructs a time when work on an English building site was the expectation of thousands of young Irish men. It would’ve been my expectation too, probably, had I been born ten years earlier.\u003cb\u003e I don’t think there has ever been a better examination of Ireland’s relationship to London\u003c\/b\u003e; a place to where the Irish were often pulled by their ambition, or pushed by their regrets -- Garrett Carr, author of THE BOY FROM THE SEA\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003edeeply moving portrait of love's many faces,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003eis at once \u003cb\u003evivid and panoramic\u003c\/b\u003e, an elegiac and clear-eyed exploration of intimacy in all its life-saving power and devastating limitations -- Colin Walsh, author of KALA\u003cbr\u003eI gulped this down - \u003cb\u003econvinced, fascinated, and moved\u003c\/b\u003e by every page -- Emma Donoghue, author of ROOM\u003cbr\u003eLouise Kennedy can make your heart ache like few others – \u003cb\u003eher magic lies in creating characters who are warm, living, breathing, utterly real\u003c\/b\u003e. The story of Róisín and Red, the star-crossed couple at the centre of \u003ci\u003eStations\u003c\/i\u003e, and the novel’s wider generational sadnesses of displacement and loss,\u003cb\u003e left me profoundly moved\u003c\/b\u003e -- Lucy Caldwell, author of INTIMACIES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eStations is a beautiful novel about loss and being lost; at its centre is a brilliantly drawn collection of found family\u003c\/b\u003e, memorable people with their own ornately-carved crosses to bear. But it’s also about another lost Irish generation, driven away by the politics and poverty that has blighted their island for so much of its history -- Nick Hornby\u003cbr\u003eLouise Kennedy's writing is full of life and the kind of observations that are all too confronting. \u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003eis \u003cb\u003efunny and moving and unexpected\u003c\/b\u003e -- Alan Murrin, author of THE COAST ROAD\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKennedy has well and truly delivered\u003c\/b\u003e with this piercing story of romantic longing and confusing friendship; loyalty, betrayal and guilt; and the hidden damage we are sometimes afraid to confront. As ever, her writing is \u003cb\u003eas urgent and unsentimental as it is heart-breaking\u003c\/b\u003e -- Madeleine Feeney * The Bookseller *\u003cbr\u003eYou can love \u003ci\u003eStations\u003c\/i\u003e for the grit and nuance of Róisín’s voice and for the ‘heart-scalding’ story she has to tell, but\u003cb\u003e I loved it for the way it holds a national sorrow\u003c\/b\u003e. Barry, Red, Muiris are some of Ireland’s many lost boys, and this book is\u003cb\u003e a lovely work of mourning and reclamation\u003c\/b\u003e -- Anne Enright, author of THE GATHERING\u003cbr\u003eA novel that gives proper weight and dignity to the lives of people we walk past every day without a thought. \u003cb\u003eMoving, compassionate, a touching love story, a wonderful evocation of time and place\u003c\/b\u003e -- David Nicholls, bestselling author of ONE DAY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSurely a Booker contender \u003c\/b\u003e… A story about loyalty and family, shame and regret … \u003ci\u003eStations\u003c\/i\u003e is a \u003cb\u003edevastating\u003c\/b\u003e read, about loss and being lost, which will break your heart, but it is \u003cb\u003ealso very funny\u003c\/b\u003e. Kennedy can always find the humour in the bleakness -- Alice O'Keeffe * The Bookseller *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003eis a \u003cb\u003estunning \u003c\/b\u003esecond novel - \u003cb\u003ea work of extraordinary emotional power \u003c\/b\u003ethat explores love, loss, reinvention, regret, emigration, and the enduring hold of the Irish childhood in all its complexity. This gripping tale of Róisín and Red, moving from Irish teenagers through to messy adult lives in London, is rendered with tenderness, precision, and aching humanity. Kennedy writes with remarkable compassion, and in \u003ci\u003eStations \u003c\/i\u003eshe has created another \u003cb\u003eunforgettable novel\u003c\/b\u003e that confirms her as \u003cb\u003eone of the most gifted story-tellers in contemporary Irish fiction\u003c\/b\u003e -- Elaine Feeney, author of LET ME GO MAD IN MY OWN WAY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBold and unflinching\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eStations\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea masterfully observed novel \u003c\/b\u003ewritten with Louise Kennedy's trademark candour. Here are characters who live and breathe on the page, making their story both\u003cb\u003e heartbreakingly real and utterly compelling\u003c\/b\u003e -- Roisín O'Donnell, author of NESTING\u003cbr\u003eStations is at heart \u003cb\u003ea story about longing and regret for the decisions we've made and the people we've abandoned along the way\u003c\/b\u003e. The writing is direct and unadorned, but carries a great emotional weight, and the excavation of the diasporic experience at the core of this beautiful novel \u003cb\u003eshines a light on the many lost souls throughout Irish history\u003c\/b\u003e who have been forced to make lives for themselves elsewhere, those who succeed and those who slip through the cracks, and treats their stories with such humanity and care.\u003cb\u003e It's a tender, atmospheric work, imbued with a sharp and often unpredictable humour \u003c\/b\u003ethat's become a feature of Kennedy's writing, and makes it such a joy to read and be swept along by her seemingly innate ability to tell a powerful and engaging story -- Michael Magee, author of CLOSE TO HOME\u003cbr\u003eThe friendship Kennedy depicts moved me enormously. It’s \u003cb\u003efunny and unexpected\u003c\/b\u003e -- Gillian Anderson\u003cbr\u003eStunning … \u003cb\u003eexquisitely written\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e * Good Housekeeping *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003etouching\u003c\/b\u003e tale of friendship, spanning rural Ireland and London * Red *\u003cbr\u003eFollowing her multi-award-winning debut \u003ci\u003eTrespasses\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003cb\u003eKennedy has got even better\u003c\/b\u003e … A \u003cb\u003eheart-wrenching \u003c\/b\u003eread * i Paper *\u003cbr\u003eA haunting tale of love and friendship set in rural Ireland * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eWhen reading \u003ci\u003eStations\u003c\/i\u003e, you are in the hands of an author who is able to move beyond her memory stores and flex her literary muscles. She extends her time frame from months to decades, creates a host of fleshed-out secondary characters and manages to insert allusions to everyone from Plato to Hogarth to Patrick Kavanagh without ever seeming to have, as Róisín would put it, “Wanker tattooed on [her] forehead”. And despite this great expansion, \u003cb\u003eKennedy continues to do what she does best\u003c\/b\u003e. Humour, for one thing … The\u003cb\u003e emotional power\u003c\/b\u003e in this book comes from Kennedy’s focus on the Irish exiles in London -- Laura Hackett * The Times *\u003cbr\u003eThe intimacy of Kennedy’s storytelling, her \u003cb\u003eempathy and warmth\u003c\/b\u003e for her characters on their journey to  hard-won wisdom and painful self-knowledge, is \u003cb\u003eunparalleled\u003c\/b\u003e * Daily Mail *","brand":"Louise Kennedy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50574048755929,"sku":"9781526664334","price":32.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/9781526664334.jpg?v=1790774967","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/stations-9781526664334","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}