A Place of Safety-Home Not Home by Kyle Michel Sullivan

Author

A Place of Safety-Home Not Home

April 1981 The hunger strike has been underway for a month and Northern Ireland is in more turmoil than usual. Brendan learns his mother is dying so returns to Derry under an assumed name to see her, only to find that she is still antagonistic to him. His younger sister, Maeve, is caring for her while also working for peace; his younger brother, Rhuari, is married and keeping himself as much out of the back and forth with the Army, as possible; while his youngest brother, Kieran, is gleefully in full-on confrontation with them. What is worse, his older brother, Eamonn, is in prison and being pushed to add his name to the list of hunger strikers. Brendan stays to help Maeve, who is stretched to her limit, trying to keep as low a profile as possible. But his mother’s ramblings while under the effect of Percocet raise questions about his father’s past, leading him to a new possibility as to why the man was murdered. Then Bobby Sands dies and Derry erupts in fury, and Brendan finds himself caught up in the chaos of the times.

Reviews

Sullivan concludes his A Place of Safety trilogy (after New World for Old) by transforming Brendan Kinsella into Jeremy Landau, a Texan researcher of Jewish heritage. It’s 1981, and Brendan’s mission is to return to his native Ireland, virtually incognito as Jeremy—who is there to draw parallels between the Irish hunger strikes and the Israeli and Palestinian clashes. With his southern drawl, close-cropped hair, and NASA baseball cap, he is nearly unrecognizable, even to his closest friends. The journey—prompted by his mother’s impending death—draws him back to a country that never truly let him go.

But Sullivan makes it clear that Ireland hasn’t forgotten Brendan. Both the IRA and British intelligence have him firmly on their radar, each vying to extract information about the bombers behind a years-ago tragedy that claimed the love of his life, Joanna. Even as Brendan navigates a tense web of intrigue, the alphabet organizations—like the PIRA, OIRA, UDF, UVF, and RUC—scrutinize his every move, turning each checkpoint into a gauntlet of suspicion, revenge, and betrayal, while Sullivan resurrects Brendan’s past with an eerie twist: Joanna may still be alive. Haunted by this revelation, Brendan embarks on a perilous quest to save his family and piece together the truth about his parents, uncovering recordings that provide startling insight into their lives and motives along the way. His pursuit is as much about understanding his own identity as it is about uncovering hidden truths and enduring tortured interrogations.

Sullivan intricately weaves trauma, history, and espionage into a narrative that demands careful attention. The backstory, richly detailed and emotionally charged, requires patience to fully absorb, especially for readers unfamiliar with the earlier books in the trilogy. For the most rewarding experience, starting with the first series offering will deliver the clarity and depth needed to appreciate the full scope of this complex saga.

Takeaway: Emotionally charged intertwining of trauma, love, and acceptance.

Comparable Titles: Anna Burns’s Milkman, Sorj Chalandon’s My Traitor.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: B
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A

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