Joseph O’Connor is an Irish writer, and Ireland seems to produce some of our greatest writers.
This is a thrilling book that I could not put down and in addition it is beautifully written and is about actual historical events that I personally care about and that I did not know about before reading this. The book recounts how an Irish priest in the Vatican engineered an escape route for thousands of Jews and escaped Allied prisoners of war during World War 2 under Nazi occupation of Italy.
This had personal relevance for me as my uncle was in a prisoner of war camp in Italy and some of my close family members from Germany and Czechoslovakia died in the Holocaust. A story of a real hero who risked his life for others. Inspiring and suspenseful.
From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Star of the Sea and winner of the 2021 Irish Book Awards Book of the Year for Shadowplay, comes a gripping and atmospheric new novel set in occupied Rome.
September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. Hunger is widespread. Rumors fester. The war’s outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, the world’s smallest state, a neutral, independent country nestled within the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely…
This is also a book by an Irish writer, Sebastian Barry. First of all the book is beautifully written. I cannot read a badly written book no matter how interesting the plot, and here from the very first page you know you are in the hands of a master.
This book is told in the first person by Lily Bere, an impoverished Irish immigrant to the US looking back over about 70 years of her life. The story begins when Lily was forced to flee Ireland for her life at the end of the First World War and recounts the great sorrows and disappointments (with her two husbands, and with her son, and finally with her grandson) that she faced during her long life in America.
The novel also shows Lily’s great courage and a few compassionate people who helped her to cope. I read this book until late in the night each night until I finished it. This is a book you will not want to put down.
'As they used to say in Ireland, the devil only comes into good things.' Narrated by Lilly Bere, "On Canaan's Side" opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. The story then goes back to the moment she was forced to flee Dublin, at the end of the First World War, and follows her life through into the new world of America, a world filled with both hope and danger. At once epic and intimate, Lilly's narrative unfurls as she tries to make sense of the sorrows and troubles of her life and of the people whose lives…
I had recently read David Copperfield. Knowing that Demon Copperhead was a reconstruction of Dicken’s novel set in contemporary Appalachia amidst the opioid crisis, I at first did not want to read it. I thought it would be a cheapening of Dickens. But when recovering from Covid I read a sample on my Kindle, I realized how wrong I was.
This is a brilliant book that depicts the terrible challenges faced by Demon Copperhead growing up fatherless and soon orphaned in drug-ridden Appalachia. Demon’s life – his traumas and his resilience – mirror those of David Copperfield. I loved noticing the parallels Kingsolver made to Dickens’ novel – e.g., her clever name changes (Dickens’ Mr. McCawber becomes Mr. McCobb; Uriah Heep becomes U-Haul).
But even for those who have never read David Copperfield, this book is a page turner. Kingsolver comes from Appalachia and this book feels authentic.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
This book recounts how visual art education has been conceptualized, taught, and advocated for in the US in the face of its persistent marginalization. I trace various rationales offered from the 19th century onward, arguing that art education has never been justified as a good in and of itself, a failure that has affected the quality of its teaching.
I map recurrent swings between traditional and progressive approaches, supplemented by my first-hand experiences of traditional art education in China and progressive art education in the Italian Reggio Emilia schools. Despite this uncertain past, I show that 21st-century art education has exploded with a wealth of new ideas aligned with the progressivism of the early 20th century and informed by practices of contemporary art.
