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

Brilliant, dark stories of women’s lives by “a very major talent” (Joseph O’Connor, 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).Praise for The End of the World is a Cul de Sac:

“Kennedy’s droll wit and spot-on dialogue brilliantly illuminate her characters’ travails.” —New York Times Book Review

“These gritty stories are marked by dark wit and avid artistry. . . . Literature with backbone.” —Boston Globe

“These are lives in progress, bolstered by richly imagined back stories, that we dip into for a critical moment or stage…Kennedy packs these stories with life. . . entrancing.” —Star-Tribune&l3-