Bad Blood

Colm Tóibín's reportage of religious tensions along the Irish border from the summer of 1987.

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Follow Colm Tóibín's lone religious pilgrimage along the Irish border during the tumultuous summer of 1987.

In the summer after the Anglo-Irish Agreement, when tension was high in Northern Ireland, Colm Tóibín walked along the border from Derry to Newry. Bad Blood is a stark and evocative account of this journey through fear and hatred, and a report on ordinary life and the legacy of history in a bleak and desolate landscape.

Tóibín describes the rituals – the marches, the funerals, the demonstrations – observed by both communities along the border, and listens to the stories which haunt both sides. With sympathy and insight Bad Blood captures the intimacy of life along one of the most contested strips of land in Western Europe.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.