Thin Places
Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh, published by Milkweed Editions on November 14, 2023, is a memoir that intertwines personal narrative with reflections on the natural world. Spanning 280 pages, this work presents a vivid account of the author’s upbringing in Derry during the Troubles, highlighting the complexities of identity and the impact of violence on everyday life. Through descriptive prose, ní Dochartaigh captures the duality of beauty and turmoil that characterized her childhood, offering insights into her family’s experiences amidst societal conflict.
In Thin Places, readers will find a rich exploration of how nature served as a source of solace and healing for ní Dochartaigh. The book delves into themes of resilience, the interplay between violence and hope, and the significance of reclaiming one’s landscape through language and understanding. By blending memoir, history, and nature writing, this edition invites contemplation on the connections between personal and collective histories, particularly in the context of Ireland’s modern struggles.
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An Indies Introduce Selection for Winter/Spring 2022
Both a celebration of the natural world and a memoir of one family’s experience during the Troubles, Thin Places is a gorgeous braid of “two strands, one wondrous and elemental, the other violent and unsettling, sustained by vividly descriptive prose” (The Guardian).
Kerri ní Dochartaigh was born in Derry, on the border of the North and South of Ireland, at the very height of the Troubles. She was brought up on a council estate on the wrong side of town–although for her family, and many others, there was no right side. One parent was Catholic, the other was Protestant. In the space of one year, they were forced out of two homes. When she was eleven, a homemade bomb was thrown through her bedroom window. Terror was in the very fabric of the city, and for families like ní Dochartaigh’s, the ones who fell between the cracks of identity, it seemed there was no escape.
In Thin Places, a luminous blend of memoir, history, and nature writing, ní Dochartaigh explores how nature kept her sane and helped her heal, how violence and poverty are never more than a stone’s throw from beauty and hope, and how we are, once again, allowing our borders to become hard and terror to creep back in. Ní Dochartaigh asks us to reclaim our landscape through language and study, and remember that the land we fight over is much more than lines on a map. It will always be ours, but–at the same time–it never really was.
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