On Canaan’s Side By Sebastian Barry

On Canaan’s Side By Sebastian Barry.

On Canaan’s Side tells the story of Lily Dunne daughter of Thomas Dunne (The Steward of Christendom) and younger sister of Willy Dunne (A Long Long Way), neither of which I have read.

The Book opens with the death of Bill grandson of 89 year old Lily.  At 19 Bill is a divorced vet of the Desert War. After a night’s drinking he breaks in to his old school and hangs himself.  During the next 17 days Lily reminisces about her life, while struggling to deal with her grief and make sense of what happened

Lily Dunne is the youngest daughter of Thomas, chief superintendent in the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Growing up in Dublin Castle her view of Irish life in the early 1900’s is slightly different from most others.  Over her life Lily loses three men to war. The first her brother Willie, who fought and  died in the Great War, the second is her son Ed, who fought in Vietnam, and third is Bill. Both Bill and Ed return from war, but are left broken by it. Ed disappears from her life forever and Bill takes his own life.

Lily becomes engaged to an army friend of her brother’s Tadg Bere.  Tadg’s job in the Black and Tans along with her father’s position in the DMP lands a price on the couple’s heads by the IRA and so they flee to a distance cousin in Cleveland. For many months they struggle to build a new life for themselves until the past catches up with Tadg, leaving Lily to flee for her life and start again.

Consumed with grief for Tadg, unable to contact her family back in Ireland, Lily has the good fortune to meet Cassie an African American servant who takes Lily under her wing. Securing her a job in the same house, Cassie teaches Lily everything she needs for employment as a servant.  The two are inseparable until, as a result of being raped and impregnated by her employer, Cassie ends her life. Lily unable to stay in the house without her marries Joe Kinderman a local cop.

Lily and Joe are happily married for several years and expecting their first child when the Cleveland East Ohio Gas Explosion occurs.  Joe a cop is on duty that day.  Lily anxiously awaits his return from work, her vigil is futile. Grieving the loss of a second love, her unborn child (Ed) is the only thing that keeps Lily going, until one day out of the blue she receives a cryptic letter from Joe. 

With a small child to support Lily finds work as a housekeeper for a rich lady in an up market suburb for several years before going to work for her daughter Mrs. Wolohan upon her marriage. Living in the Hamptons, Lily meets Mr. Nolan, an Irishman employed as the Wolohan’s gardener. Their friendship deepens with Mr. Nolan assuming the role of father to Ed, and in turn Bill.

On his deathbed weeks before Bill’s passing Mr Nolan reviles a secret that causes Lily to question their relationship.

On Canaan’s Side is long listed for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. The short list is announced on Tuesday 6 September.

Apology

Blog has been neglected this week. Was reading a book to review but to be honest it was terrible.

On Canaan's Side review coming tonight/tomorrow to be followed by "The Carrie Diaries" and "Summer and the City"

Random House Win 10 books of your choice this Summer!

Got this in my inbox today.

The closing date for the competition is midnight 25th August 2011

Good Luck

Poolbeg SALE

I got an email off Poolbeg today letting me know of an offer they are running

SPECIAL OFFER

Up to €6 OFF these

NEW AUGUST titles and on

all Adult books 

 

 

 

And free postage (with in Europe)

 when you spend over €20 

 

 

Enjoy

The Millenium Trilogy

This is the first of, no doubt, many Millenium  Trilogy related posts. Yesterday Ryan Tubridy interviewed Eva Gabrielsson, partner of the late Stieg Larsson. She has written a book 'Stieg and Me: Memories of a Life with Stieg Larsson' about the 32 years she spent with Stieg.


A podcast of the interview can be found here
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/podcast/podcast_tubridy.xml

PUNISHMENT

PUNISHMENT by Anne Holt. 

Punishment (What is Mine USA) is the first in a series of book featuring Joanne Vik and Adam Stubo

When Emilie doesn’t come home from school her father isn’t too worried. It’s not the first time since her mother’s death she has run away. It’s not until several hours later when he finds her school bag on the side of the road he calls the police and reports her missing. Detective Inspector Stubo, of Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service is senior officer on the case.  With no leads in Emilie disappearance and two more missing children, Stubo decides to contact Johanne Vik a solicitor with a degree in psychology and former FBI profiler who has studied convicted sex offenders. 

Reluctant to get involved in a case involving missing children Vik is already juggling  a small child and job lecturing at the local university as well looking in to the 44 year old murder of an eight year old girl at the request of  dying woman Alvhild Sofienberg, whose job was preparing application for Royal Pardons. It was here that Alvhild came across Aksel Seier who was convicted and given a life sentence for the rape and murder of eight year old Hedvig Gasøy. Alvhild was convinced on Aksel’s innocents and starts to dig further. One day she arrives in to her office to find all the documents relating to the case have disappeared. Then she receives the most astonishing news. Eight years in to a life sentence Aksel Seier is released from prison without expiation.

When the bodies of the missing children start to turn up at their parents homes, and the pathologist can find no apparent cause of death, the case takes a twist causing Vik to wonder if the current murders are connected to Hedvig Gasøy.

I came across Anne Holt a Norwegian writer in my local bookshop. Her latest book ‘Fear Not’ promised ‘Holt is the queen of Scandinavian crime’. Readers of this blog know I am going through a crime phase so the blurb caught my attention. I headed to the library to pick up Punishment as it was the first book in the series and I like to read series in order.

Personally I loved the book apart from the fact that the victims were young kids.  There are several twists in the book that you don’t see coming. The ending is not an obvious one. The story jumps between the perspective of the different characters and between the sub-plots which can be a little annoying.  Over all the book is well worth the read and I will be looking for the other four books in the series.

Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize 2011 longlist was announced last Tuesday 26^th of July 2011.

A total of 138 books were under consideration for the long list which was condensed down to the following 13.

Julian Barnes  The Sense of an Ending   (Jonathan Cape - Random House)
Sebastian Barry  On Canaan's Side   (Faber)
Carol Birch Jamrach's  Menagerie  (Canongate Books)
Patrick deWitt  The Sisters Brothers  (Granta)
Esi Edugyan   Half Blood Blues  (Serpent's Tail)
Yvvette Edwards   A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld)
Alan Hollinghurst   The Stranger's Child (Picador - Pan Macmillan) Stephen Kelman   Pigeon English (Bloomsbury)
Patrick McGuinness   The Last Hundred Days (Seren Books)
A.D. Miller   Snowdrops (Atlantic)
Alison Pick   Far to Go (Headline Review)
Jane Rogers   The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
D.J. Taylor   Derby Day (Chatto & Windus - Random House)

The shortlist of six authors will be announced on Tuesday 6 September.

The winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on Tuesday 18 October.

Visit www.themanbookerprize.com

Twitter at twitter.com/ManBookerPrize.

I have been looking forward to reading Sebastian Barry On Canaan's Side for a while now and I’m glad to see it make the longlist. This is Barry’s third time getting a nomination, having made the shortlist twice before.

Have you read any of the books listed or any of the autors other works? What do you think of them.