Translink Book Club
Novel Journeys
Founded by Translink, Novel Journeys, is a virtual book club set-up to celebrate the benefits of reading.
In partnership with independent bookstore ‘No Alibis’, each month we will bring you a recommendation of a title that we can all read together.
This will be followed up by a discussion with a group of reviewers and guest panellists. Please see below for upcoming events.
Keep updated on social channels and follow the conversation using #NovelJourneys. Visit us on Instagram
*Recommended books may contain adult themes or language not suitable for young teens
Book of the month
July 2021: The Troubles with Us by Alix O'Neill
Growing up on the Falls Road in 1990s Belfast, Alix O'Neill has seen it all – from burnt-out vehicles blocking the route to school to the police mistaking her father for a leading terrorist. Not that she or her friends are up-to-speed with the goings-on of the resistance. They’re too preoccupied with the obsessions of every teenage girl – booze, boys and Boyzone.
Desperate to leave Northern Ireland and the trials of her mother's unorthodox family - a loving yet eccentric band of misfits - behind, she makes grand plans for the next stage. But it's through these relationships and their gradual unravelling that Alix begins to appreciate not only the troubled history of where she comes from, but the strength of its women.
Warm, embarrassing and full of love and insight, The Troubles with Us is a hilarious and moving account of the madness and mundanities of life in Northern Ireland during the thirty-year conflict. It's a story of mothers and daughters, the fallout from things left unsaid and the lengths a girl will go to for fake tan.
Virtual Book Club Event
You’re invited to join the first Translink #NovelJourneys Virtual Book Club Event! Featuring guest panellists Brian McGilloway, crime fiction author from Derry~Londonderry, David Torrans, owner of noalibis.com, and Sheena McStravick, Editor at www.belfastlive.co.uk., the Book Club will take place online via Zoom on Thursday 24th June at 7.30pm – RSVP now to join the conversation and escape on a ‘Novel Journey’ from the comfort of your seat!
Our Book Club will take you on a tour of Pascal Mercier’s ‘Night Train to Lisbon’ (our first ‘Novel Journeys Book of the Month’ back in April), with questions and discussion encouraged from our audience.
Brian McGilloway
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