"A major work of modern fiction from an astoundingly accomplished writer." -- The Guardian
Description
From the bestselling author of Star of the Sea and Shadowplay, a novel of epic power, ferocious grit, indomitable resolve, and shattering romance, set in a savage and lawless Western Territory in the aftermath of the Civil War.
1865—the Civil War is ending. Eighteen years after the Irish famine-ship Star of the Sea docked at New York, a daughter of its journey, Eliza Duane Mooney, sets out on foot from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crossing a ravaged continent on a quest. Eliza 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 is a walk that will have consequences for many seemingly unconnected survivors: the stunning intellectual Lucia-Cruz McLelland, who deserts New York City to cast her fate with mercurial hero James Con O'Keeffe—convict, revolutionary, and commander of a brigade of Irish immigrants in the Union Army turned governor of the desolate Western township of Redemption Falls; rebel guerilla Cole McLaurenson, who fuels his own gruesome Westward mission with the blind rage of an outlaw; and runaway slave Elizabeth Longstreet, who turns resentment into grace in a Western wilderness where nothing is as it seems.
Redemption Falls is a Dickensian tale of war and forgiveness, of strangers in a strange land, of love put to the ultimate test. Packed with music, poetry, and storytelling, this is "a vivid mosaic of a vast country driven wild by war" (Irish Independent) and a riveting tale of urgent contemporary resonance.
Reviews
"This book took my breath away." --Frank McCourt
"Redemption Falls...is told with extraordinary ingenuity, the tone a mixture of the playful and the grave, at times fast-moving, smart, and very clever, and then full of beautiful writing and heartbreaking sequences. The cadences of the competing voices in the book combine to produce a dazzling narrative." -- Colm Tóibín, author of The Master, winner of the 2006 Dublin International IMPAC Award
"A huge achievement, as deep as it is wide, this is a book like no other of these times -- a panorama of violence, vigor, and tragic love set among people devastated by the American Civil War, brilliantly recounted in the multiple tones of their voices, writings, and songs, and realized with an empathy both impressive and extraordinarily moving." -- Nuala O'Faolain, author of Are You Somebody? and Almost There