In The Effect of Her, with flair and great daring, [Stembridge] has written a fictional chronicle of the 1970s that is extraordinarily vivid, knowing and satisfyingly irreverent' JOHN BANVILLE Mags Perry, a journalist, flees her marriage in England to create a new life in what she hopes is a different Ireland. Francis Strong, a teenager obsessed with literature, leaves his family for the dizzying freedoms of the capital. CJ, a disgraced politician in search of a way back to power, meets a woman who may change the direction of his life. In his breathtaking new novel, Gerard Stembridge weaves together a cast of unforgettable voices to tell the story of a whole society in flux. As his characters struggle towards happiness and freedom, he asks where true change comes from: the individual, or her political masters.