Blog tour: Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise

This post is part of a blog tour organised by Random Things Blog Tours. I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

‘In the wilds of Donegal, Ireland, 1999, Saoirse is an artist living an outwardly idyllic life. Her tender partner Daithí and two beloved daughters are regular subjects for her work, and in them she has found the safe home that she has always longed for. She tends not to talk about her past, and those that love her have learned to accept that the full story is too painful for her to disclose.

‘When her Dublin exhibition unexpectedly wins a prestigious award that invites a swarm of publicity, Saoirse is left panic-stricken. The unanticipated recognition threatens to expose a decade’s worth of buried memories and past crimes.

‘Because what her family and friends don’t know is that Saoirse has been on the run since she was 17, she has stolen an identity to survive, and whilst Ireland might now be her home, it wasn’t her first – and now her past life is poised to reclaim her.

In Saoirse, by Charleen Hurtubise, we follow the titular character from her flight to Ireland at the age of 17, using a name and passport that aren’t hers, to her late 20s, when her true identity and reasons for leaving the US finally come to light and threaten to upend the life she’s built.

During this period, after a rocky start, Saoirse becomes a successful artist, settles down with a loving partner, and has two daughters. However, she’s constantly looking over her shoulder, and silently suffering from the trauma she accrued growing up with an addict mother and deplorable stepfather – the details of which are conveyed to us through flashbacks, as she processes her feelings through painting.

Charleen Hurtubise’s debut novel, The Polite Act of Drowning, was one of my favourite reads of 2023, so I was very excited to read Saoirse – and I was right to be so! Like its predecessor, I absolutely devoured this book as I was so captivated by the main character and her story.

As a victim of circumstances that are in no way her fault, yet also someone who shows great care and resourcefulness in a desperate situation, Saoirse is a sympathetic and compelling character I wanted nothing but a favourable outcome for (my eyes may have leaked a little towards the end!).

The author does a great job of showing how Saoirse was manipulated into committing – or looking like she committed – felonies as a minor in America, without downplaying the seriousness of those crimes or suggesting she benefitted from them at all. In fact, Saoirse comes to Ireland with a boatload of trauma, thanks to her derelict parents and the company her stepfather kept.

This is only exacerbated by her treatment at the hands of the most stuck-up members of the Byrne family, whom she ends up living with after meeting one of them – odious trainee doctor Paul – on the plane. I couldn’t help but feel outraged on her behalf when they pushed around and belittled her, and was disgusted (though not surprised) by their reaction when her past was revealed.

While events conspire to keep Saoirse from making a totally clean break from the Byrnes, her eventual relationship with Daithí is a balm. I liked how he was also a bit of an outsider, and lacking family in Ireland but well-supported by friends. This “found family” theme additionally manifests in Saoirse’s friendship with older woman Catherine, who turns out to be invaluable in many ways.

I thought it was ingenious how Hurtubise uses Saoirse’s artworks as a gateway to key episodes in her past. I’ve got a bit of a thing for books with artist characters – I love watching them get ideas, go about their work, and develop and find success over time – but this one particularly stood out because I could so clearly envisage what the fictional paintings might look like. What’s more, I was drawn to the idea of Saoirse processing her trauma through painting, even if she didn’t realise that’s what she was doing at the time, as part of my wider interest in the therapeutic benefits and neuroscience of the arts.

Saoirse is enthralling and heart-rending, with a highly sympathetic main character.