Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan; Trigger by CG Moore; The Traitor in the Game by Triona Campbell; The Things We Leave Behind by Clare Furniss and more
Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan; Trigger by CG Moore; The Traitor in the Game by Triona Campbell; The Things We Leave Behind by Clare Furniss, and moreSarah Crossan's latest novel is called Where the Heart Should Be and is set during the Great Famine. Photograph: David Myers. Like most of the former Laureate na nÓg’s previous, often award-winning books, it is a story told in verse, which allows for both a sense of accessibility and for poetic images to haunt the reader.
The use of love-induced loss of appetite works more on a symbolic level than historical one; when Nell declares “Even if there were plenty of potatoes / in our house I couldn’t eat / a / single / one / without being nauseous” my soul filled with the sort of nationalist rage I did not know lived inside me and am in truth a little embarrassed by.
Jay wakes up alone in a park, victim of an assault he can’t remember and doesn’t want to admit. Time splits into before and after; he goes from “living his life” to “struggling to survive”, with white space indicating the gap between the two versions of himself. His journey from anger to acceptance is realistically bumpy, related in accessible poems that convey – though sometimes merely name – the range of emotions Jay goes through.