PICTURES: All smiles at author Saoirse Prendergast book launch in Kilkenny

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There was a great turnout on Saturday evening for the launch of White Butterfly by Saoirse Prendergast at the Medieval Mile Museum.

White Butterfly brilliantly captures the insidious nature of coercive control and its creeping mental strangulation of a person.

Reviewers are raving about this debut novel with Suzanne Power-Author, Mentor and Editor describing it as a ‘powerful debut by a powerful presence. 

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It is a powerful and present novel, true to the reality of what can’t be seen and must be named. John Mc Kenna-Author, Broadcaster, Playwright and Poet says ‘Saoirse Prendergast has walked that fine line between darkness and light. 

Louise Crowley-Professor of Family Law in University College Cork describes it as ‘an incredible, insightful portrayal of the solitary and self-loathing world of a victim of coercive control, and the power of evil to destroy lives. A brilliant and much needed insight into the reverting crime of coercive control.’

Set on an Island off the East coast of Canada, it describes a girl’s grief of losing her father at a young age. Her idyllic life on Acres Island is shattered. In one terrible moment, all her heroes, confidantes, and inspirations are taken away.

Her artist mother, who named Sakura after cherry blossom, is frozen. Her older brother becomes a distant presence. Her best friend Jack is far away in a world of before, a parallel universe free of tragedy.

No one can reach Sakura until she finds her love of horses and, through this, meets someone who will change her life forever. Hope offered with a fellow Islander. But nothing is as it seems. Those who understand, those who don't. She discovers her truth and begins to create a new life, where butterflies live free.

Louise Crowley, professor of Family Law in University College, Cork, describes it as ‘an incredible, insightful portrayal of the solitary and self-loathing world of a victim of coercive control, and the power of evil to destroy lives. A brilliant and much needed insight into the reverting crime of coercive control’.

Saoirse’s love of writing began when she completed a writing course in Kilkenny through NUIM.
A graduate from University College Dublin with an MPhil, she also has a BA in Theology and Philosophy and a Certificate in Counselling Skills from National University Ireland Maynooth.