Charleen Hurtubise SAOIRSE

October 2 | In-Store | 6:00 PM

Charleen Hurtubise, Saoirse

Join us for Charleen Hurtubise in conversation about her latest novel, , a powerful novel set between the United States and Ireland about a woman who runs from her traumatic past and the secrets she carries to survive. For all Tóibín and Keegan fans (and we know we have many!) this one’s for you.

Doors and minibar open at 5:30PM

Getting here: We are located at 1620 Orrington Avenue, in downtown Evanston, just one block east of the Davis Street Metra and CTA public transit stops. There is metered street parking as well as numerous parking garages nearby.

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About the Author

Charleen Hurtubise is a novelist, essayist, and artist. She is the author of The Polite Act of Drowning, published in Ireland and the UK in 2023. Saoirse is her US debut. She holds an M.Sc. from Trinity College Dublin and an MFA in creative writing from University College Dublin, where she has facilitated creative writing seminars. The sixth sister in a family of nine, she spent much of her childhood in Michigan, her early adult years in Boston, and has now lived half of her life in Ireland, which is home. Though she lives in Dublin with her Irish family, the pull of Donegal never leaves and continues to influence her drawings and writings, including .

About the book:

In Michigan, Sarah’s childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse (pronounced Sear-sha)—a name that sounds like the sea and means freedom in the language of her adopted country. And free is precisely how she is finally beginning to feel. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects of her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. No one must learn of the identity she has stolen in order to survive; they cannot know of the dangers that she crossed an ocean to escape.

When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together. Journalists and admirers begin to ask questions about the mysterious artist from Donegal, and she fears the unwanted publicity will expose all that she has done.

Saoirse is an evocative, suspenseful exploration of the intimate relationship between art and life and the lies we tell ourselves in the name of reinvention.

In The News

“Saoirse is a delicious literary jigsaw, leaving the reader to piece together the memories, paintings, and confessions of our eponymous heroine. Beautifully written and enticingly intriguing… Charleen Hurtubise is a shiny new star in the Irish literary firmament.”

—Liz Nugent, bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond and Unraveling Oliver

“Audacious and propulsive, a story that surges with emotional vitality—this is a dazzling novel.”

—Colin Walsh, author of Kala

“A novel as rich with narrative layers as the visual art of its protagonist, yet limned with trauma, with the consequences of secrecy and silence, and with the hope that can come from true connection and community, Saoirse is an audacious act of storytelling.”

—Belinda McKeon, author of Tender and Solace

"Searing and intimate."

—New York Times

"Gripping and emotionally complex, Saoirse is a moving portrait of love, heartbreak and the sacrifices one woman makes for the family and life she deserves...luminous!"

―Michelle Gallen, author of Factory Girls

"Stunning story-telling."

―Good Housekeeping