This month’s book has been recommended by one of Row Town readers. “I didn’t think I would like this book because it is about teenagers who fall in love but with the background story of troubled Northern Ireland and how people just assumed that because you were this or that you would be like the stereo-type they have in their head is interesting. My Nan is from Northern Ireland and she said that this book captured the hatred and mistrust of the times. I would recommend this book to readers who like books based on real life.”

Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard

In the middle of the times of conflicts in Belfast, Sadie Jackson, a 16 years old Protestant girl, meets an old friend of her after nearly three years. Kevin McCoy. The 18 years old boy, who lives on the other side of the city, is a Catholic. But this does not seem to bother the two good friends at all. While Kevin and Sadie are getting more and more closer to each other, suspicion and rumours begin to grow. Tommy, Sadie’s brother knows what she is up to and tries the best he can to void it, and so does Brede, Kevin’s sister. But not successfully. Obviously, no one around them seem to be very fond of this, seeing them together. Especially not their families and their friends.