If there was a place that crystallized the Northern Irish conflict, Derry, and Bogside within, was it. The very name of the place—Derry, or Londonderry—carried a dark political weight, laden with centuries of meaning. Your chosen descriptor revealed your own loyalties: Derry, if you were Irish: Londonderry, if you were Unionist. It was a tough place to grow up, and a tough place to stay in, and Duffy hadn’t, as much as he’d wanted to. The city was defined by oppression, and for Duffy and his Irish Catholic neighbors, this meant fewer jobs, flimsy housing, and the constant threat of Unionist police forces and the Loyalist gangs they tacitly encouraged.

— Next One Is for You by Ali Watkins (28%)