The Belfast Express (Brigid Carrick, Ventura)

Centring on an aspiring nurse in 1970s Ireland, Bridid Carrick’s The Belfast Express examine the impact of the Catholic Church and chronic underemployment on the lives of Dubliners. After 18-year-old Brianna convinces her family and the parish priest to support her ambitions, she fulfils her dream of training as a nurse, albeit not in her chosen city of London, but in Dublin. Along with fellow nurses and new friends Muriel, Iris and Shauna, Briana encounters a society in which contraception is outlawed, resulting in “ever-growing families crowded into the tenement slums”. Told in first person, The Belfast Express is a cosy and gentle story. While the pace takes time to gather momentum, more difficult plot points are eventually tackled. Carrick explores themes of women’s autonomy and institutional power with the confidence of a writer drawing on lived experience. At times, however, the narrative veers into the farcical – particularly in scenes involving gossiping neighbours and interfering family – a tonal shift that occasionally sits uneasily alongside the novel’s heavier subject matter. The Belfast Express offers an informed and compassionate account of the lives of mothers and midwives in this era. Readers should note that, in exploring the hypocrisies at play in this world, the novel references sexual assault by clergy as well as medical trauma and abortion – topics that may be distressing for some. This novel will appeal to fans of Jennifer Worth’s account of West End London midwifery, Call the Midwife.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Tara Lee is a creative technologies support officer at the City of PAE Libraries. When she's not running a workshop teaching the community how to create using technology, she's crafting or reading a great book. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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