The award-winning writer Louise Kennedy speaks to Radio 4’s Take Four Books about her latest novel, Stations, and, together with presenter James Crawford, they explore its connections to three other literary works.

Stations follows Róisín McCaffrey as she meets and Red Camelin as a teenager in their small Irish hometown in 1982. Red’s reputation for trouble precedes him – but Róisín finds herself swept up in his storm, and soon their connection deepens.

For her three influences Louise chose: I Could Read The Sky by Timothy O’Grady and Steve Pyke (1997); The Grass Arena by John Healey, now printed as a Penguin Classic, (1988); and J.D Salinger’s Franny and Zooey (1961).

Louise Kennedy grew up a few miles from Belfast. She is the author of the acclaimed short-story collection, The End of the World Is A Cul de Sac which won the John McGahern Prize. Her debut novel Trespasses, published in 2022, has been translated into over twenty languages. It won Eason Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, Best Debut at the British Book Awards and the McKitterick Prize, and was also shortlisted for several awards including the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and Barnes and Noble Discover Prize.

In 2025, Trespasses was made into a limited TV series by Channel 4, starring Lola Petticrew, Tom Cullen and Gillian Anderson. Before starting her writing career, Kennedy spent nearly thirty years working as a chef. She lives in Sligo.

Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.