The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac

Irish novelist Kennedy (Trespasses) centers these incisive stories on women at precipitous turning points in their lives. Sarah, the protagonist of the title story, resides in a derelict housing estate built by her husband, Davey, before he ran off. She learns from a neighbor that she’s known as “the gangster’s moll from down the hill,” the nickname earned because of Davey’s record as a neglectful landlord, and she bides her time before the estate is repossessed. Though most of the stories unfold in an Ireland clinging to past glories, Kennedy sometimes goes afield, as in the wry “Beyond Carthage,” in which Therese, recovering from breast cancer surgery and estranged from her husband, suffers through a rainy and depressing vacation with a frequently inebriated friend; Therese had been thinking of a place like the Canary Islands, but instead they’re at a gloomy concrete resort in Tunisia during the “wrong season.” The masterly and compassionate “Garland Sunday” epitomizes Kennedy’s aptitude for contrasting traditional and contemporary Irish sensibilities, as 40-something Orla, whose husband has turned against her because she chose to have an abortion, attempts to win him back at a Gaelic festival, where she’s struck by her connection to the “unearthly” women of ancient folklore, one of whom commits infanticide. Each story reverberates with a sense of the far-reaching effect of choices made or imposed. It adds up to a remarkable and cohesive collection. Agent: Eleanor Birne, PEW Literary. (Dec.)