How is the fictional town of Ballina described in the novel, Wild Houses?

Ballina is depicted as a small, rural, and isolated setting that profoundly impacts the novel’s characters and themes. Its remote, insular nature contributes to the characters' feelings of confinement and entrapment, reflecting their personal struggles and limited opportunities. The town's isolation amplifies the sense of vulnerability and desperation, as its inhabitants are cut off from broader support systems and solutions. Ballina’s close-knit yet fragmented community underscores the novel's themes of complicity, moral compromise, and the consequences of being ensnared in a web of criminality.