Saoirse

Set in Ireland across the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the novel alternates between a present-day timeline and flashbacks, intercutting conventional narrative chapters with italicized first-person painting chapters that function as embedded confessions, each titled after an artwork in the protagonist's exhibition.

In early October 1999, Saoirse Byrne, a rising artist, lives in remote Donegal with her partner Daithí Gallagher, a builder and restoration specialist, and their two daughters: eight-year-old Leah, from a previous relationship with Paul Byrne, a Dublin doctor, and baby Eloise. When Saoirse learns she has won the prestigious Margaret Dowling Art Prize, her first reaction is terror: She fears the attention surrounding her upcoming solo exhibition, Lost Was Found, will expose a secret past she has concealed for nearly a decade.

The narrative shifts to September 1990, revealing Saoirse's true identity. She is Sarah Roy, a teenager fleeing the United States under a stolen Irish passport belonging to Sarah Walsh, a friend from Boston whom everyone called "Sasa." On the flight to Dublin, she meets Paul, a medical student returning home. She tells him her name is Sarah, claims to be 20, and says she was born in Ireland.

The painting chapters reveal Sarah's traumatic childhood in fragments. At three, her mother Fleur drops her at the Lavender House, the home of her maternal grandparents, Mama and Papa Frank. Fleur returns with Lou, her boyfriend and Sarah's future stepfather, and takes Sarah away. By eight, Sarah is caring for her newborn half sister, Léa, while Fleur is incapacitated by drug use, and Lou begins exploiting Sarah as a drug mule. In high school, Sarah's art teacher, Isabelle "JezaBelle" Jones, recognizes her talent, but JezaBelle is later revealed to be connected to a criminal network.

In Dublin, Sarah stays at the Byrne family home after Paul insists. His father, Joseph, is welcoming; his mother, Nuala, is cold. Sarah sleeps in the room of Paul's absent sister, Vivienne. She and Paul have a single, unsatisfying sexual encounter, and she tells him the next morning she only wants to be friends. During a family lunch, she meets Daithí, the builder constructing a studio in the Byrnes' garden. His mother, Kitty, was an Irish doctor who raised him in a Gaeltacht, an Irish-speaking region of Donegal, after a relationship with his Kenyan father, Dr. Michael Kimathi. Kitty died when Daithí was 11, and he was sent to Dublin for school. At a camping trip on the Wicklow coast, Sarah and Daithí share their first kiss, and he gives her the Irish name Saoirse, meaning "freedom." Paul grows jealous and confrontational.

A later painting chapter reveals the catalyst for Sarah's flight. At 17, Lou forces her to drive from Michigan to Florida to deliver illicit materials. At the destination, Kenny, a figure in a crime ring, sexually assaults Sarah and threatens to target Léa if Lou does not return stolen money.

In December 1990, Saoirse visits Daithí in Donegal. They spend the night together in his caravan near the ruin he is restoring at Whale Bay, and she feels safe for the first time. But she realizes she has missed a period, and the baby is Paul's. Back in Dublin, Paul discovers her positive pregnancy test, invokes the Eighth Amendment, which constitutionally bans abortion in Ireland, and confiscates her expired passport. Saoirse is trapped: She cannot travel to England for a termination because her stolen passport has expired and she has no legitimate documents. Paul hints he has known her real name, Sarah Roy, since their first flight together.

In late spring 1991, Saoirse walks to the end of a pier near the Poolbeg Lighthouse, intending to end her life. A stranger named Catherine, a woman with kind eyes, appears beside her and gently talks her back from the edge. Catherine becomes her closest friend and most constant ally. In June, Saoirse gives birth to Leah. Joseph pays for her art education, and she thrives at college, developing a recognized style. She learns through friends that Daithí has traveled to Kenya to build medical centers alongside his father.

Further painting chapters reveal how Sarah escaped Michigan: After finding her mother overdosed, she drove Léa to a parking lot near the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit and handed her sister to their grandparents. She fled alone to Boston, where she met Sasa. Another painting reveals the moment in Boston when Sarah reads that three bodies have been unearthed at the Michigan farm. Her fingerprints on a gun are the key evidence linking her to the deaths. She flees to Ireland.

Paul's violence escalates over the following years, and Saoirse begins documenting his abuse. On the night of August 30, 1997, Paul grabs her neck and whispers that he is nearly done with her. That same night, Joseph collapses and dies. At the funeral, Daithí, recently returned from Kenya, steadies Saoirse from the pew behind her. Catherine takes Saoirse and Leah to her home in Greystones, ending their residence with the Byrnes.

In summer 1998, Saoirse and Daithí reunite. He tells her he came back for her. His house at Whale Bay is finished, and after a custody negotiation, Saoirse and Leah move to Donegal. She later becomes pregnant with Eloise.

By late 1999, the art prize thrusts Saoirse into unwanted attention. On New Year's Eve, Daithí tells her he fears they will not survive if she does not let him in. In early January 2000, a newspaper article reveals that Sasa has returned to Ireland and her identity has been stolen. The gardaí, the Irish police, are investigating. Edel, a journalist sent by Paul, arrives at Saoirse's door referencing Kirkhill, Michigan, and the name Sarah Roy. Saoirse flees with both girls.

After hours of panicked driving, Saoirse stands on the sea cliffs where she and Daithí once hiked. She reads the article Edel left: Eddie Doyle, her first love, testified with immunity, claiming Sarah murdered Kenny and Lou. JezaBelle received a life sentence. Saoirse realizes Eddie was connected to JezaBelle's criminal network, killed the two men himself, and framed her by placing the pistol in her hands at a truck stop, ensuring her fingerprints became the evidence against her. Leah climbs out of the van and approaches. An image of Fleur on the bathroom floor flashes through Saoirse's mind, pulling her back from the edge. Gardaí arrive and take Saoirse into custody.

In a psychiatric hospital, Saoirse tells the gardaí everything and is charged with identity theft and fraud. American officials seek her extradition for murder. Paul and Vivienne visit to serve custody papers; the girls are separated. Daithí arrives days later with Eloise and tells Saoirse he believes her. Catherine has found Saoirse's sketchbooks and given copies to the gardaí and a professor studying the case. On national radio, Vivienne calls Saoirse a fraud, but Sasa herself calls in and publicly forgives her, declaring, "I am just so sick of women having to run all the time" (225).

A Canadian Embassy official delivers transformative news: Saoirse is a Canadian citizen, born in Ontario. Canada will not support extradition and is petitioning for immunity. A witness from Florida will testify on her behalf. Léa is alive and under Canadian protection. Nuala agrees to shared custody of Leah on the condition that Saoirse drop the Byrne name.

At her hearing in July 2000, Saoirse pleads guilty to lesser charges and receives 240 hours of community service. The novel's final section, set in summer 2003, depicts a joyful wedding at Whale Bay with Léa as attendant. Saoirse has reunited with her sister and created a wordless picture book, Home at Whale Bay, dedicated to Sasa. The novel closes with Saoirse and Daithí sitting on the rocks below their house, watching lights sparkle on the water.