Everything in this Country Must, 2000
A collection of shorts stories that focus on the Troubles and reveals, as only fiction writers can, the reverberations of political tragedy in the most intimate lives of men and women, parents and children. In the title story, a teenage girl must choose between allegiance to her Catholic father and gratitude to the British soldiers who have saved the family's horse. The young hero of Hunger Strike, a novella, tries to replicate the experience of his uncle, an IRA prisoner on hunger strike. And in Wood, a small boy does his part for the Protestant marches, concealing his involvement from his blind father. Writing in a new form, but with the skill and force and sparkling poetry that have brought him international acclaim, Colum McCann has delivered masterful, memorable short fiction. |
Making Sense of the Troubles: a History of the Northern Irish Conflict, 2000
Compellingly written and even-handed in its judgments, this is by far the clearest account of what has happened through the years in the Northern Ireland conflict, and why. After a chapter of background on the period from 1921 to 1963, it covers the ensuing period-the descent into violence, the hunger strikes, the Anglo-Irish accord, the bombers in England-to the present shaky peace process. Behind the deluge of information and opinion about the conflict, there is a straightforward and gripping story. Mr. David McKittrick and Mr. David McVea tell that story clearly, concisely, and, above all, fairly, avoiding intricate detail in favor of narrative pace and accessible prose. They describe and explain a lethal but fascinating time in Northern Ireland's history, which brought not only death, injury, and destruction but enormous political and social change. They close on an optimistic note, convinced that while peace-if it comes-will always be imperfect. The book includes a detailed chronology, statistical tables, and a glossary of terms. |
Singing My Him Song, 2000
Examines how Malachy McCourt went from living the headlong and heedless life of a world-class drunk to becoming a sober, loving father and grandfather, still happily married after thirty-five years. Bawdy and funny, naked and moving, told in the same inimitable voice that left readers all over the world wondering what happened next in A Monk Swimming, Singing My Him Song is "told with the frankness and honesty for which McCourt has become renowned." |
What Are You Like, 2000
Born in Dublin in 1965, Maria Delahunty was raised by her grieving father after her mother died during childbirth. Two decades later, Maria is living in New York awash in longing and in love with the wrong man. Going through his things, she discovers a photograph of a little girl who looks an awful lot like her—but isn’t her. Soon Maria begins to unravel a long-buried secret more devastating than her father’s mourning, but bursting with possibility. The secret is that she has a twin sister, Rose, that was adopted by an English family. The two women do not meet until the very end of the novel, when they are 22. |