Most of the stories in Louise Kennedy's debut collection follow women through the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Relationships, mortality, womanhood, loyalty, and memory are all placed beneath the microscope as we move throughout the collection, almost as though we are drifting around the titular cul-de-sac, glimpsing the loves, losses, hopes, and sorrows playing out behind each door.

An exact timeframe is never made clear, but one story, "Silhouette," stands out for being the only to make specific reference to the realities of life in the wake of the Troubles. In it, we see a young woman coming of age, wrestling with her love for her brother and the knowledge that he killed a man during the conflict that ruled the streets. Though the other stories rarely deal with subject matter this overtly political, several explore the theme of women attempting to live in a society that...