Charleen Hurtubise
Saoirse: A Novel
Celadon Books, 2026<\/p>\n
With a bit of editing, Charleen Hurtubise\u2019s new novel might have read like a fast-paced, Reese Witherspoon optioned thriller, with Jennifer Garner or Jessica Alba attached to a rumored adaptation. Trim some of the big ideas about art. Shed some of the gorgeous nature writing about Ireland. Shift one or two violent scenes to an earlier chapter. The nightmarish crises endured by young, exploited women set Hurtubise\u2019s plot in motion, and there\u2019s a character who investigates \u201chuman trafficking,\u201d another detail that resonates even more darkly and deeply amidst the slow-drip horrors of the Epstein files.<\/p>\n
In the end, though, Hurtubise resists the urge to sensationalize the decade-spanning plot in Saoirse: A Novel, her second novel, and first released in the US. Hurtubise\u2019s main character\u2014who has no choice but to go by many names, including the book\u2019s title (pronounced Sear-shaa)\u2014is a seemingly-contented artist living with her husband and children in a \u201cremote corner of Donegal,\u201d in the fall of 1999. When Saoirse wins a prestigious award, however, the Irish Times report ominously notes that she \u201chas established a reputation for maintaining a deliberate silence about her work and is generally unavailable for interview or comment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why is that? And why is Saoirse\u2014with her \u201cMidwestern accent\u2026not something she can turn on or off\u201d\u2014in Ireland in the first place? In Irish Gaelic, Hurtubise\u2019s title means \u201cfreedom,\u201d which turns out to be deeply ironic. Saoirse\u2014despite her happy family and flourishing career\u2014is bound and trapped in so many ways, as we learn when we spiral back to her brutal youth.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s where the thrust of Saoirse\u2019s narrative skids a bit.<\/p>\n
We don’t initially see the horror of young Saoirse\u2019s life, but instead the flight from it, when the \u201cpossibility of escaping from this nightmare had become her reality.\u201d This mad dash to Ireland is a gripping read, with vast consequences for the rest of the novel. But it also means we\u2019ll have to spiral back again later, to see precisely what Saoirse is running from. These alternating flashbacks, at times, detract from the immediacy of each different section. Hurtubise\u2019s impressionistically violent scenes are, nevertheless, among the book\u2019s most powerful, dominated by loathsome adults right out of Dickens. One \u201cMr. Blackburn,\u201d for example, drags a student \u201cto the classroom door and throws him against the lockers.\u201d As for Saoirse, her father is a mystery, while her mother is \u201cthe cause of her now broken heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of young Saoirse\u2019s more gruesome experiences are conveyed through descriptions of art works she\u2019ll produce later on. Some of these passages teeter on the edge of cliche\u2014”illicit material\u201d smuggled \u201cacross state lines,\u201d \u201cbrown paper bags\u201d with ominous contents, inadvertent fingerprints, and even a wealthy \u201cheiress\u2019s home.\u201d Other moments, though\u2014the \u201cswish of a shower curtain,\u201d for example\u2014are unbearable and unforgettable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charleen Hurtubise Saoirse: A Novel Celadon Books, 2026 With a bit of editing, Charleen Hurtubise\u2019s new novel might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1149,3458,3457,3459,3456,2878,98,3461,3462,100,99,3455,17,1117,3465,749,2538,9,3463,24,63,3460,3464,905],"class_list":{"0":"post-182281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-art-books","10":"tag-art-critic","11":"tag-art-reviews","12":"tag-artists","13":"tag-books","14":"tag-brooklyn","15":"tag-brooklyn-art","16":"tag-brooklyn-culture","17":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","18":"tag-brooklyn-news","19":"tag-contemporary-art","20":"tag-culture","21":"tag-dance","22":"tag-fiction","23":"tag-film","24":"tag-music","25":"tag-new-york","26":"tag-new-york-art-scene","27":"tag-new-york-city","28":"tag-nyc","29":"tag-phong-bui","30":"tag-poetry","31":"tag-theater"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}