Book Review -Thin Places - Kerri Ní Dochartaigh
I started to listen to this audio book of ‘thin places’ just when the complexities of brexit were starting to become apparent in the North of Ireland. Although a decade older than the author, I too shared the same anxieties she has about the border, that most porous of lines on a map, which I am only a couple of miles from, small country roads where I walked and listened to this book.
Troubles
The book is a mixture of memoir, history and nature writing, which the author weaves beautifully. Kerri's early years are badly scarred by the troubles, and she experiences a lot of trauma, which follows her throughout her life. I found it difficult to listen to at times, as such was the emotional intensity of it. It is incredibly raw at times and Kerri writes with such an open heart. The writing is beautiful and eloquent, with such strong imagery, and I felt glad that Kerri was telling her own story.
There is hope in ‘thin places’, though, as Kerri returns and finds healing in the same lands she had fled from, in the 'thin places' of the title where she finds stillness and peace. As I finished the book in April of 2021, the thin strands of peace were being pulled at, tested for weakness. The author had a deep hope that there would be no return to 'the troubles', that the collective shared trauma was still recent and would prevent this. I hope so too.