Anna Burns: Milkman (January 2026)

Anna Burns was born in Belfast in 1962 so, like the protagonist in her novel, she was a teenager during the Troubles in the late 1970’s.

The unnamed 18 year old relates her story in a stream of consciousness style and we learn of the effects of living under unbearable pressure and danger from all sides.

She is being stalked by an older, married, paramilitary man who knows every detail of her movements. She is from a catholic family and is expected to conform and get married. She is, as is everyone else, under constant surveillance in this tight-knit community with gossipy women telling her mother that she is having an affair with the stalker, cameras click, and young children are employed to help keep a close watch and inform the paramilitary of any supposedly suspicious behaviour. Any activity could be misconstrued as a betrayal and anyone seen as an informant is punished by a severe beating or murder.

This constant danger and vigilance takes its toll and her hobbies and interests, running, reading, friendships, and evening class that are part of the normal life she craves become impossible. At one point it seems that she is about to have a complete breakdown.

Although Milkman is obviously set in Belfast, the time and place is not named so it could stand in for anywhere or any time where the population is living under a form of totalitarian tyranny with a closed society under unremitting intrusion where all behaviour is politicised, any display of individuality is suspect and violence and murder are so commonplace that people are inured to it.

With nobody to trust and confide in, the thoughts of the protagonist churn over and over in a stream of consciousness and this is a visceral work with the reader feeling her growing despair which we found exhausting. We felt for her and we were touched by her and her relationships with her mother and her younger vivacious sisters.

This book was a difficult read and we thought it was over long. Even the Literary Review described it as “evasive” and “challenging” and other reviewers agreed.

A cleverly written book with a deep insight how conflict and tyranny can impact on the lives of innocent people but, I’m sorry to say, it was such a struggle to read that we awarded it 2.5/5.