Girl on the Leeside

In a quiet Irish village, a sheltered aspiring poet is content with her cloistered life until a charismatic newcomer from America broadens her horizons--and leads her to uncover astonishing secrets about her past.

Siobhan Doyle grew up with her Uncle Kee at their family pub, the Leeside, in rural Ireland. Kee has been staunchly overprotective of Siobhan ever since her mother's death in an IRA bombing, unwittingly isolating her from other people and the full richness of life. Still, Kee and Siobhan consider themselves comfortable in their quiet haven, serving drinks to locals and reading and discussing Irish poetry. But then fate intervenes.

A visiting American literary scholar awakens Siobhan to the possibility of a fulfilling life away from the Leeside. Meanwhile, secrets from the past threaten to tarnish her relationship with Kee. In the face of these changes, Siobhan reaches a surprising decision about her future. Lyrical and heartfelt, Kathleen Anne Kenney's Girl on the Leeside deserves a place alongside contemporary literature's best-loved coming-of-age novels.

KATHLEEN ANNE KENNEY is an author, freelance writer, and playwright. Her writing has appeared in Big River, Coulee Region Women, and Ireland of the Welcomes, as well as other publications. She has had numerous short plays presented in Minnesota theaters and has published the play The Ghost of an Idea, a one-actor piece about Charles Dickens. Her play New Menu was a winner in the 2012 Rochester Repertory Theatre's national short-play competition. She is currently at work writing her next novel.