Soon after the Anglo-Irish Agreement, when the tension was at a peak in Northern Ireland, Colm Toibin travelled along the Irish border from Derry to Newry. Bad Blood tells of fear and anger, and of the historical legacy that has imprinted itself on the landscape and its inhabitants.Marches, demonstrations and funerals are rituals observed by the communities that live along this route. With insight and intelligence Toibin listens to the stories that are told, and unfolds for the reader the complex unhappiness of this fraught border.