Blog Tour: Saoirse – Charleen Hurtubise

Can a great love survive a great deception?

In the wilds of Donegal, Ireland, 1999, Saoirse is an artist living an outwardly idyllic life. Her tender husband Daithí and two beloved daughters are regular subjects for her work, and in them she has found the safe home that she has always longed for. She tends not to talk about her past, and those that love her have learned to accept that the full story is too painful for her to disclose.

When her Dublin exhibition unexpectedly wins a prestigious award that invites a swarm of publicity, Saoirse is left panic stricken. The unanticipated recognition threatens to expose a decade’s worth of buried memories and past crimes. Because what her family and friends don’t know is that Saoirse has been on the run since she was seventeen, she has stolen an identity to survive, and whilst Ireland might now be her home, it wasn’t her first – and now her past life is poised to reclaim her.

Charleen Hurtubise has lived in Dublin, Ireland for over 25 years, having moved from Michigan, USA. She is a teacher and artist as well as a writer, and her short fiction, essays and poetry have appeared in various publications. She holds an MFA Creative Writing from University College Dublin (UCD) where she has also facilitated creative writing modules.

My thoughts: Saoirse has been running from something her whole life, but now she’s found a home, she’s finally safe, but it all might be lost in an instant.

I was utterly hooked by Saoirse’s story, her awful childhood, her attempts to start over, her love for Daithí and her children, her passion for her art. She’s a fascinating character, she’s had to fight for so long, struggle for survival.

It might not be the happiest of stories, but Saoirse is a survivor, a chameleon, changing herself to fit in, to keep going, always living on her nerves. It’s intense but gripping, moving and full of beauty.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.