Redemption Falls

by Joseph O'Connor

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.

Redemption Falls is a tale of war and forgiveness, of strangers in a strange land, of love put to the ultimate test. Packed with music, balladry, poetry and storytelling, this is a riveting historical novel of urgent contemporary resonance, from the author of the internationally bestselling Star of the Sea.

(From Publisher).

Joe O'Connor was born in Dublin. He has written ten widely acclaimed and best-selling books including the novels Cowboys and Indians, shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize, Desperadoes, The Salesman, and most recently Inishowen. His work has been published in eighteen languages

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.