For Theresa and her student friends, Belfast can seem an urban nightmare - a city where violence can erupt at any moment, where secrecy and bitterness are nursed behind closed doors, and where Theresa's twin brother, Francis, has been murdered, Deirdre Madden carefully and movingly reveals the crisis of faith that confronts Theresa when her devout Catholicism provides no explanation for the tragedy.

Hidden Symptoms was originally published in Faber's

First Fictions anthology where it was highly praised and was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1987.