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2009 Longlist

Redemption Falls

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ABOUT
THE BOOK

1865. The American Civil War is ending. Eighteen years after the famine ship Star of the Sea docked at New York, the daughter of two of her passengers sets out from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on a walk across a devastated America. Eliza Duane Mooney is searching for a young boy she has not seen in four years, one of the hundred thousand children drawn into the war. His fate has been mysterious and will prove extraordinary.

It’s a walk that will have consequences for many seemingly unconnected survivors: a love-struck cartographer, a haunted Latina poetess, rebel guerrilla Cole McLaurenson, runaway slave Elizabeth Longstreet and the mercurial revolutionary James Con O’Keeffe, who commanded a brigade of Irish immigrants in the Union Army and is now Governor of a western wilderness where nothing is as it seems.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Joseph
O’Connor

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. His books include Cowboys and Indians, Inishowen, Star of the Sea (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011) and Shadowplay (Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, Costa Novel of the Year shortlist). He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. Photo Credit: Urszula Sotys

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. His books include Cowboys and Indians, Inishowen, Star of the Sea (American Library Association Award, Irish Post Award for Fiction, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, Prix Madeleine Zepter for European novel of the year), Redemption Falls, Ghost Light (Dublin One City One Book Novel 2011) and Shadowplay (Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year, Costa Novel of the Year shortlist). He received the 2012 Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Literature and in 2014 he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. Photo Credit: Urszula Sotys

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

Set in the US during the Civil War, Redemption Falls recreates the lives of Irish immigrants brilliantly, with enthralling characters, a fast paced narrative, rich and colourful language it is storytelling at its best.

This is a highly descriptive and satisfying read combining history, memories, transcripts, interviews and stories from a host of eclectic characters depicting the desperation and ugliness in America during wartime. Evocative and stunning prose which provides the reader with a sense of desperation and frustration of the futility and horror of war and its aftermath. Wonderfully rich and satisfying read.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
Ireland
Original Language
English
Publisher
Harvill Secker

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