Besotted

The cover of Besotted

In this, his second novel, Joe Treasure confirms his status as a quietly assured writer with a keen ear for dialogue. His portrayal of an Irish community and of family relationships in particular, is convincingly natural.

Besotted unfolds like an origami bird, the layers both subtle and complex. It is a rite of passage tale about passivity and passion. The story spans the years between the ’80s and 2004, unravelling secrets and conflicts: between brothers, cultures, politics and religion.

Between the unexpressed rivalry of two brothers; the conflict of their English/Irish identity; the shadow of religion and its attendant guilt, and the chemistry that sparks in unexpected places, this is an engrossing coming of age novel, charged by the secret at its core.


The highly-sensitised awareness of a teenage boy after his first encounter with a girl is vividly evoked.

Afric McGlinchey in the Irish Examiner Saturday