French exchange inspires Larne author’s debut book

Snugville Street by Angeline King tells the story of a family living in the Shankhill area after the Troubles.

“This is a post-conflict story which opens in 2003 when Methody student Hannah is a 17-year-old girl,” Angeline revealed.

“Her father is about to come home from prison after nine-and-a-half years and she has booked a French exchange. She is hoping that her french exchange student Etienne won’t know her father has been in prison and when he arrives there is a lot of comedy. Hannah then travels to Sète where Etienne is from, and learns a lot about Breton culture.”

Angeline says that the novel contains themes of identity, shame and redemption. She also revealed that the inspiration for the book came from her own teenage french exchange experience.

“In the year of the Shankhill bomb I had a french exchange student called Frederik come over and it was absolutely hilarious, the whole community in Greenland Drive got involved with taking him places and he got girlfriends around the street,” she laughed.

“Everyone in Larne knew about Frederik, he was here for three weeks and then I went over for three weeks.”

Angeline hopes to release her novel on Amazon on September 28.