MILKMAN
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! My middle name is Patrick, so I’m obligated to make an Irish recommendation this week. MILKMAN by Anna Burns, winner of the 2018 Man Booker Prize, is a psychological slow burn set during The Troubles in Northern Ireland that deftly builds a palpable sense of danger and surveillance. The story follows an unnamed 18-year-old girl caught in a violent web of allegiances who begins to be followed by a sinister man known as the milkman. Although the novel is specific to a place and time in Irish history, it provides an account of young womanhood that transcends its setting.
—Nolan Patrick Russell, Executive Assistant
