Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise
Published by Celadon Books
Publication date: February 24, 2026
Genres: Book Clubs, Debut, Fiction, Coming-of-age, Literary
Bookshop
A teenage girl in fear for her life steals both money and a passport to get out of the U.S. and into Ireland in the 1990s. This is the beginning of the novel Saoirse, but it’s nowhere near the beginning of the life of Sarah, the main character. That unspools slowly throughout the book as the years pass and Sarah morphs into Saoirse. She goes from a toxic childhood to a woman happily settled in a life with a partner and two children with the only constant being her gift for art. It’s her therapy, her working out all the things she can never tell anyone, including the man she loves. It’s only as her talent is discovered and publicized that Saoirse’s past threatens to destroy her present.
Sarah’s childhood in Michigan is one of neglect and chaos. Her mother is an addict with a drug dealing boyfriend who uses the young Sarah as a courier for his drug trafficking. As she gets older the danger involved with these exchanges accelerates until Sarah is forced to take desperate action and flee. A friendship with an Irish girl who looks a lot like her leads Sarah to her escape from her pursuers, but only after she’s pulled further into a world of violence.
Author Charleen Hurtobise does a stellar job immersing the reader in Saoirse’s world, from the time she’s the teenage Sarah all the way to her adult life. She communicates the helpless terror Sarah feels when the adults around her are out-of-control and no one is looking out for her as well the bucolic nature of the life she’s settled into with her partner Dáithí in the present day. But while the beauty of the Irish coast and the gentle pace of her life can be felt by the reader, she’s still haunted by her past and the fear she feels at being discovered as a fraud. She never truly relaxes even in the happiest moments of her life and it colors every decision she makes.
This tension and the reverberation of poor choices and desperate actions works well until towards the story’s end when the plot boils over in ways that felt a little forced and unnecessary. Sarah’s journey, growing from a child and young woman with no sense of agency, who can only submit or run, to the contented Saoirse freely pursuing her passion was rewarding enough. Still, this is a gripping, well-written debut and I look forward to seeing what Hurtubise does next.
I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org where your purchases support local bookstores. I will earn a commission (at no cost to you) if you click through and make a purchase.
*I received a free copy of this book from Celadon in exchange for an honest review.*
Leave a Reply