“A stunning story of political intrigue in 1994 Northern Ireland… This dazzles.” – Publishers Weekly STARRED review
“This place and its residents will fascinate readers, as will Duffy’s unique vernacular… which perfectly captures this damaged community.” – Booklist
“…a powerful, poetic thriller about the costs and consequences of political violence…. Duffy’s tense, brutal story unspools in the lyrical voice of an omniscient narrator…” – The Book Reporter
“Readers will be completely immersed in a society of paranoia, vengeance and fear that Duffy masterfully cultivates.” – The Harvard Crimson
“The paean to Ireland that CROSS vividly presents: These are complicated times, shaping complicated people… Duffy captures the natural beauty of Ireland alongside the intracacies—for better and for worse—of its inhabitants, portraying with depth and verisimilitude a close-knit island alive to its own history.” – The Chicago Review of Books
“A tremendous novel, powerful and compelling, written with great gritty authenticity.” – William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart
“There comes a point in a hunger strike, remarks an IRA operative in Cross, when a body begins to smell, ‘on account of the body starting to eat itself’. It’s a deeply resonant image, and a powerful metaphor for what happens in the book’s eponymous Northern Irish border town when the 1994 ceasefire forces it to make a reckoning with its violent past and uncertain future. It’s an intricately plotted game of cat and mouse where it’s never clear who’ll turn out to be the cat and who the mouse – a novel which brings Austin Duffy’s distinctive blend of black humour and moral seriousness to the literature of the Troubles.” – Carys Davies, author of Clear
“Cross is a portrait of an embattled community drilled in lying to itself, in justifying the unjustifiable and condoning the unconscionable. Austin Duffy has fashioned a thrillingly tense read out of a morality play, producing a novel of riveting clarity and international relevance for our turbulent times.” – Claire Kilroy, author of Tenderwire
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