Louise Kennedy
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Welcome to the programme, where an author tells us about their new novel and reveals three other works that inspired its creation. My guest today, Louise Kennedy, worked for 30 years as a chef before a friend cajoled her into joining a creative writing group. Safe to say that this was a life-changing moment. Her debut collection of short stories, The End of the World, is a cul-de-sac, won the prestigious John McGahorn Prize. And then in 2022, her debut novel, Trey. Passes was a huge, critical and commercial success. A Sunday Times bestseller, it was also nominated for no less than eight awards, including shortlistings for the British Book Awards, Book of the Year, and the Women's Prize for Fiction.
Now she returns with her second novel, Stations, a tale of enduring teenage friendship and love that begins in the nineteen eighties and goes on to span three decades as it moves back and forth between Ireland and London. Louise Kennedy. Welcome to Take Four Books. Thank you very much, Jamie. It's great to be here. Louise, you're here to talk about your new novel Stations and the three works that influenced it. And you've picked a unique collaboration between a photographer and a writer that documents Irish migration, a searing memoir of homelessness in London, and the great JD Salinger's novella about two siblings, difficult transition to adulthood, Franny and Zoey. But first, Louise, let's turn to your new novel, Stations.
It's a story of a bond forged between two teenagers, Rasheen and Red, who are growing up in small town Ireland in the nineteen eighties. And it begins with Rasheen acting as a messenger to pass Red a love letter sent from another girl, which in today's world of texts and Snapchat feels wonderfully archaic, doesn't it?
Yeah, it's very old fashioned, all right, isn't it? Um yeah, in the days when we wrote notes and letters and so on. Yeah, so um Rochine is she's a recent blow into a fairly dreary uh town in the Irish Midlands. Um her f family had moved a a few years earlier from the north of Ireland for various reasons to do with the troubles. Um mainly actually that her um her her father was um a Catholic but also a member of the Irish Which would have been considered to be quite a sectarian force at the time. So that caused problems when they lived in the north. But now that they're in the south, it's also a problem. So that's a secret that she has to hold for her family. And also, she's really deeply unpopular in school.
And I suppose, in order to gain favour with her main tormentor, she offers to carry this letter because she Tina, the mean girl, ha is is going out with, although she can't actually get out of the house, with a boy called uh Red, who's sort of the bad boy around the place. And when Roshin carries the first letter, they realise that um they probably have more in common and more to talk about. Yeah, it kind of backfires, doesn't it? It sort of does. They have more in common than um than Red and the and the horrible Tina have. And this friendship starts.
What is Louise Kennedy’s new novel Stations about and how does it begin?
Yeah, I mean talk about Rasheen and Red. I mean both are bookish. Yeah. Both are whip smart and and both in different ways feel out of place in their small town, don't they?
Yeah, I think they are. I think um the yeah, they're probably a bit precocious. I think for Rosene it's maybe because she spends a lot of time by herself and um and reads and listens to music and um and and sort of maybe she has to have this um fairly vivid inner life to
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:43
2
What is Louise Kennedy’s new novel Stations about and how does it begin?
3:43–10:43
3
How do Róisín and Red first meet and what sparks their friendship?
10:43–19:06
4
Why does the novel shift from the Irish town to 1980s London?
19:06–24:43
5
What role does the Christmas‑day scene play in the story?
24:43–34:59