Pilgrim

The year is 1982 and in Dublin, fourteen-year-old Jen is struggling to cope. She has lost her mother, and her father, Charlie, seems to have given up on life. Then Jen's aunt, Suzanne, convinces the pair to go on pilgrimage to a strange village in Communist-ruled Yugoslavia, where the Virgin Mary is alledgedly appearing daily to six local children, in the hope that it will heal their broken lives. But what hope can be found for a man who has none left, and his daughter who is losing faith in him, in a place where the local police rule with an iron fist?
"Deeply moving and evocative prose. Haunting, tender yet hopeful. Pilgrim is a beautiful read that lingers." Best-selling international author, Carmel Harrington.
"In this cynical age, it's a joy to encounter such sincerity and wonderfully unexpected to see contemporary fiction as a profession of fervent yet gentle faith. Louise is a brave and humane writer, a breath of the freshest air." Renowned author Donal Ryan, winner of Guardian First Book Award and long listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Louise Hall is a writer of fiction, non-fiction and short stories from Dublin, Ireland. Her non-fiction works include, Medjugorje: what it means to me (2012) and Medjugorje and Me: a collection of stories from across the world (2014). The latter was translated into Italian -I Miracoli di Medjugorje -and published by Edizioni Piemme in 2016. Louise's first fiction novel, Pilgrim, was published by Ireland's oldest publishing house, Mercier Press, in 2018. The novel received endorsements from award winning authors, Donal Ryan and Carmel Harrington. In 2020, during the worldwide pandemic, Louise published, Little Book of Hope, a pocketbook of reflections to help guide people through the difficult times.
Her short stories, Frankie's List, Turlough's Dream and Ballymun Chaos are published online in the Irish Times literary section. Louise is represented by Sonia Land of Sheil Land Associates in London.