![]() ![]() Milkman takes place in the late 1970s, and its main character is an introspective 18-year old who has unwittingly garnered the attention of a much older man, a high-ranking republican paramilitary called Milkman. A common reference in reviews of Anna Burns’ Booker Prize-winning Milkman is head judge Kwame Anthony Appiah’s comments in praise of the novel: that it will help people to think about #Metoo, that its portrayal of the Troubles is comparable to the fractured societies in contemporary Lebanon and Syria, and that although it is a difficult read – akin to ‘climbing to the summit of Snowdon’ – it is ‘worth it when you reach the top.’ While Appiah’s associations (which Burns has remarked were unintentional) are not unwarranted, to dwell on them risks deviating from what this book squarely presents: an intense psychological journey into the traumatic impact of the Troubles in Northern Ireland on its inhabitants. ![]()
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