Titanic Town

by Mary Costello

A coming-of-age novel set against the sectarian conflict of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland

340 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

About the author

Mary Costello is an Irish-Australian writer whose currently leads a double life these days, partly in Melbourne and partly in her native Ireland. She spends six months of the year in Melbourne's bush-burbs with her husband of many years, who, oddly, bears no resemblance whatsoever to a romantic hero. They have two daughters, for whom Mary aspires to arrange advantageous matches to men of large property.

The other six months are spent in the gloriously green Glens of Antrim, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that has inspired her current work-in-progress, a medieval adventure romance entitled Izabeau.

Mary's first book, Titanic Town, Memoirs of a Belfast Girlhood was published by Methuen UK. It's a fictionalised account of growing up in West Belfast during the Troubles. In 1999, it was made into a multi award-winning film produced by Company Pictures UK, (Wolf Hall, Elizabeth, The Missing). It was directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Enduring Love, My Cousin Rachel), and starred Julie Walters and Ciaran Hinds.

Mary penned her first romance in 2014, inspired by the heroics of the men of Aussie Rules football. The Reluctant Wag, the first book in the Yarraside Wolves and WAGs series was published by Penguin Australia under their Destiny Romance imprint.

Reviews

[jinkiswinkis · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️college read ⭐️

interesting! loved the convo of girlhood within it

[Imogen Birch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book about a girl growing up during the troubles of Northern Ireland. About the best book I’ve read on the Troubles. Grew up there myself in those times although not in the heart of Belfast.

[Lisanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, as strange as it sounds. It was surprisingly funny. Felt a bit too much of a collection of short stories for me to fully enjoy it as a novel.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Annie McPhelimy’s life is anything but peaceful as she navigates growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the “Troubles”. With her loving and supportive family at her side, she looks to an uncertain future with hope that things will get better.

First time author Mary Costello has written a book that is at times uproariously funny and strikingly poignant. What makes this novel really stand out is Costello’s ability to show the characters as the flawed and complex people that they are and the reader cannot help but feel this family's pain, sorrow, and anger as they are surrounded by daily acts of violence as they go about their lives in Catholic West Belfast. The abject realism of life as a Catholic in Protestant dominated Northern Ireland is simply told without being preachy or polarizing. Luckily for the reader, Costello refrains from turning this novel into a political statement which allows the story to stand on its own and truly shine
Read it/Skip it: Read it

[Sophie]

As with This Human Season, I also did not find the time to read this book yet.

[Sephie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semi-autobiographical story of growing up in Belfast during the 'troubles'. This is an interesting and sometimes hard-hitting story, but my interest began to wane towards the end.