The 12th Day of July by Joan Lingard
I read these Joan Lingard books at school for GCSE English. I remembered liking them but didn’t recall much else. They are similar in a way to the above Outsiders, in that they depict life and relationships across barriers. This time the barriers are political. Set in Belfast, with Sadie on the loyalist side and Kevin the Republican. Like the Outsiders, the beauty in this lies in its authentic and stripped-back depiction of these teenage characters – their loyalties and their emotional interactions not so influenced by the politics of others. Essentially a Love story, brilliantly capturing the conflict and heartache in forbidden love.