by Paul Lynch
First published 2023
Eilish Stack opens her front door on a wet Dublin evening to find two officers from Ireland's new secret police waiting on her doorstep. They want to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist, as Ireland slides toward authoritarian rule. The scientist and mother of four watches her familiar world crumble as the government tightens its grip on power. Her country transforms into something unrecognizable while the people she loves begin to vanish around her. Eilish faces impossible choices as she navigates this new reality where ordinary freedoms have disappeared. She must decide how much she will risk to protect her family and what sacrifices she can bear to make. The collapse of democratic Ireland forces her into a desperate struggle to keep her children safe while everything she once trusted falls apart.
Genres: dystopia, 20th-century, 21st-century, political-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, political-intrigue
Setting: Dublin, Ireland
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
309 pages · Hardcover · Grove/Atlantic
Content warnings: violence