“Tom Phelan's The Canal Bridge is the best novel of love in the time of war since Cold Mountain. It is an old-fashioned story in the very best sense: dramatic, passionate, unpredictable, gorgeously written, heartbreakingly true, ultimately ennobling. This is truly a great book. I loved every page.” —Howard Frank Mosher, author of Walking to Gatlinburg
“The Canal Bridge is a tour de force of writing, passionate, moving, and brilliant. Here is World War I in all its madness, and its terrible humanity.” —Kevin Baker, author of The Big Crowd
“There is no false bravado in Phelan’s riveting, unsparing account, no sentimentality, no hollow heroes, no hyper-patriotic blather. Phelan’s characters live and breathe and bleed. Phelan’s fiction is the real thing. The Canal Bridge is a classic.” —Peter Quinn, author of The Banished Children of Eve and Dry Bones
“Another First World War masterpiece . . . Ambitious, accomplished, and deeply moving.” —Irish Independent
“Effectively constructed and emotionally honest . . . the reader gains a new perspective on how the Great War decimated lives throughout Europe." —Booklist, starred review
“Masterful . . . Must be ranked among the most successful novels dealing with the First World War.” —Irish Emigrant
“Phelan is a marvelous storyteller. Don’t miss out on a great contemporary author.” —Irish Eyes (Paris)
“Incredibly moving story . . . The writing is consistently stunning.” —Irish Echo
“The Canal Bridge sings and weeps . . . Thrilling.” —Celtic Connection
“Powerful and deeply affecting.” —Books Ireland
“More than just a war story . . . Tom Phelan has created a powerfully imagined story from these little known years of that war . . . [He] handles his narrative voices extraordinarily well.” —allinoneboat.org
The Canal Bridge
A Novel of Ireland, Love, and the First World War
