Book: Milkman by Anna Burns

Milkman is set in a Catholic/Republican enclave in an unnamed Northern Ireland town in the 1970s. However, at its heart is the poisonous effect of gossip, and the intimidation of civilians by paramilitary/military forces. For this reason, it could be set in a war-torn African or Latin American village, as Islamic State-held community, or the People's Republic of China. Anna Burns brilliantly portrays the shattering impact of ignorant and malevolent gossip on people who are simply trying to get on with their lives.

"Even at the outer limits of absurdity and contradiction people will make up anything. Then they will believe and build on this anything," she writes.

Having won the Man Booker prize for Milkman, it has been a commercial success, and is now in paperback. Burns' stream-of-consciousness style may remind some readers of Nicholson Baker's Mezzanine (or James Joyce). Yet, the eighteen-year-old female narrator is engaging, sympathetic, bright and complicated, displaying an extraordinary vocabulary.

On one level, the plot is simple: the narrator is plagued by a prominent married forty-year-old Republican who stalks her, and threatens to kill her boyfriend. Meanspirited relatives and neighbours soon spread toxic gossip about her. Lies and tattle-tailing could prove deadly if people were denounced for their lack of enthusiasm about the Republican cause. They were shunned if they went to a hospital when wounded because hospitals were an outpost of the British state.

Burns also shines a light on the way in which Catholic neighbourhoods were controlled by the paramilitaries, just as working-class Protestant districts were dominated and bled by by paramilitary Loyalists during the Troubles. Yet, despite this, the humanity and resilience of her characters shines through, leaving an upbeat conclusion. Readers may at first find Burns' style challenging, but it is worth persisting with this gem.

Milkman by Anna Burns is published by Faber and Faber, £8.99

The Judas File, Rebecca Tinsley's novel about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, is available on Amazon.