Sensation

Tipperary farmer Donal Duggan is twenty‐six, less a man than a child growing older, he is dead to wonder, dulled to life, empty of kindness and aching with lust. Sensation details the relationship between Donal and a veteran Kiwi escort named Kim. They begin as client and call‐girl, evolve into ersatz lovers, then business partners and finally co‐defendants. It is a relationship based less on desire or mutual attraction than on urgent need. They give each other something no one else can, a sense of meaning and belonging, a way into a society that had hitherto shunned them. In this way the narrative touches on a new theme in Irish life. The corrupting effects of money and power on someone who's never had any of either.Donal longs for love and meaning but settles for sex and status. He will come to realise that they're not the same thing and will ultimately be faced with the prospect of betraying Kim to save himself. The question is, save himself for what? Sensation tests many of our assumptions about commerce, love and friendship in a world where sexuality has displaced community, politics and religion from the heart of the culture.