After The Rising: A Novel (An Irish Trilogy I) [Kindle Edition]

Orna Ross (Author)

Book Description

Can We Ever Escape The Past That Made Us? 

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"He is still the picture I have held in my had but blurred at the edges, like a photograph out of focus. His hair is gone, his long, black, beautiful hair. It used to flow down his back, soft and shiny as night-water. Thinning and greying now: any man's hair. And he wears a suit, any man's clothes. I look for what I used to know.

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When Jo Devereux returns to Ireland after an absence of 20 years, the last person she expects to meet at her mother's funeral is Rory O'Donovan. The unexplained conflict between his family and hers was the one constant of Jo's childhood and caused their painful breakup. 

Now she's back in Mucknamore, the Irish village where they both grew up, he's urging her to stay on and she's tempted. Because of him? Because her mother no longer lives? Because her life in San Francisco is such a mess? Or because, being a writer, she always swore she'd write a book about it all.

So Jo settles into a shed near the beach and embarks on a literary quest,  uncovering astonishing truths about her mother and grandmother, about women's role in the conflict that became known as "The War of The Brothers", and about a killing with consequences that have ricocheted through the generations -- leading ultimately to the revolt that made her leave home. 

But now she's back and Rory, mired in an unhappy marriage, is urging her to rebel again but reading her family history has made Jo cautious. 

"Rebellion has an energy that sweeps people up," she tells him, "but what happens after the rising?" That's the question she must answer if her exhumation of the past is to redeem her future.

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AFTER THE RISING was Orna Ross's debut novel, published (together with its sequel BEFORE THE FALL) as Lovers' Hollow by Penguin in 2006. 

Universally acclaimed and an instant bestseller, it has now been reissued by the author.

Enjoy this compelling story of love, loss and redemption, written with a lyrical Irish lilt.

Editorial Reviews

Review

SUNDAY INDEPENDENT: One is immersed in this epic story immediately and effortlessly... The main characters are so well-drawn that you feel you have heard about them in your own life. The novel's strength is that it puts culpable, fragile flesh and blood - lots of blood - on a defining moment in Irish history... Of particular delight are the many unexpected twists and turns. Orna Ross has written a highly ambitious, engaging and evocative novel and a hauntingly captivating read.

IRISH INDEPENDENT: This debut novel from Orna Ross, the sort of massive book you could happily curl up with for the entire winter [is] an impressive canvas... It explores the influence of our families on who we later become, in literary, lyrical language, while still being a captivating read.

EVENING HERALD: The writer is tackling a central theme - and one that's been sleeping quietly since the Irish State's foundation. The story-within-a-story - desire, hatred, love and a killing in the Civil War - is loosely based on a Wexford murder of the time and ... is a gripping tale... Interweaving past and present and making them strike fire off each other... [the writer] has made brilliant use of original sources, including local historians in Wexford, adding the icing on the cake.

AMAZON.COM: "Orna Ross has written a masterpiece and in this age of exaggeration and hyperbole I hope I can convey just how exceptional is her book."

(For More Editorial Reviews see: Before The Fall) 

From the Author

Isabel Allende once said, "Write what should not be forgotten". That's my guiding principle as a writer. 
 
  My father's uncle was shot during the Irish civil war of 1922/3, though nobody was able to say by whom, or why. And I grew up, fifty years later, in the village where this had happened, surrounded by silence about this event. So when I came to write fiction, it was natural to turn to that time, and its consequences. It seemed to sum up so much of what I wanted to say about what gets spoken and what remains secret and unsaid.
 
  And also about the struggle every human being experiences between freedom and belonging. Because while the novel is set against the background of the scrappy, squalid conflict that was The Irish Civil War, it is not so much about that as about all sorts of private, intimate and personal wars -- around sexuality, and family, and love. 
 
  I very much wanted to include the female experience during that war -- called 'The War of The Brothers' though women were more involved in it than the earlier independence struggle -- and draw parallels between the outer, male-driven conflict and other more intimate struggles within family and other close relationships.
 
  So the book turned into a three-generational family fiction, using a contemporary (1990s) narrator tracing her family history back, and giving us extracts from letters and diaries and scenes she has written herself as she imagines her grandmother and great-aunts and -uncles as young women and men.
 
I set the shootout that killed Barney to happen in a similar place in Co. Wexford, on the same day as my uncle was shot, and in similar fashion -- a small memorial. A number of things that happened in the novel were taken from real life, like the inquest and investigation into the killing by the Free State court. But a great deal more was invented.
 
  Readers always want to know which bits "really" happened but it isn't that simple. It all gets very mixed up. All I can say is that I ended up with a story that was very different to what really happened. Imagination came in and filled the blanks, answered the questions I couldn't find "real" answers for, and made a pattern that was reflective of, but very different to, what actually happened. 
 
    This was my first novel, originally published (together with its sequel BEFORE THE FALL) by Penguin Ireland in 2006, as Lovers' Hollow.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 674 KB
• Print Length: 298 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Font Publications (December 16, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006N6BDI8
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,616 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #18 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Drama > British & Irish
  • #39 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > British & Irish

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The sinking sands of Coolanagh - AFTER THE RISING May 13, 2012

By Leila Smith

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

`WARNING!' they shout. `DANGER! The Sands on this side of the Point are Unstable and Unsafe. Do not Diverge from the Path.'

Orna Ross has written a masterpiece and in this age of exaggeration and hyperbole I hope I can convey just how exceptional is her book After The Rising.

There is not a spare word nor a trite phrase anywhere in this book - the prose is absolutely gorgeous.

She clearly and lyrically tells the story of Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann (The Irish Civil War) and its after effects through the research and recollections of Jo Devereux, who has come into possession of a chest containing her family's terrible secrets. The war between the Free Staters and the Republicans claimed thousands of Irish lives and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael live on as reminders of that terrible conflict.

A wise nun leading a pre-Cana class told me years ago that the social pathology of a family muscles its way inexorably from generation to generation unless some one person consciously decides to stop it and repair the damage. In Orna's book, we follow that damage in the Parle, O'Donovan and Devereux families.

Orna writes a battle scene as well as anyone, and in this work tells the story of Cumann na mBan , the women who supported the losing side, the sinking side, and of Norah O'Donovan from a Free Stater family who loved Barney Parle a Republican partisan and of his sister Peg Parle in love with Dan O'Donovan and the tragic - never melodramatic - consequences. And in a more recent incarnation, we learn of Jo Devereux's love for Rory O'Donovan, made impossible by the opposing loyalties of their ancestors.

She writes of the complexities of mother-daughter relationships made ever more complex in a time of war by hardened ideologies; of patriotism; of love for dear old Ireland; of out-of-wedlock pregnancies then and now.

The reader is treated to the epics and legends like Táin Bó Cúailnge and the way they are inextricably woven into the Irish consciousness.

And her gift for narrative brought me near to tears more than once.
"The window frames Mucknamore in full seductive act. Over to our right, the setting sun throws streaks of orange and pink and red along the sky and the sea borrows and flaunts the colours like they're its own. Waves shimmer around the curve of the Point and Coolanagh and between the island and the sea, flat sands glisten with foam. Above it all, seabirds circle and swoop, silver-and-gold underwings flashing in the dazzling, dying light. "
" Peg felt the mystery of a long marriage. The long melding of days and doings felt, in that moment, more significant to her than the melding of bodies to which everyone, including herself, gave so much attention. All that seemed a small thing to hold beside her father's gentle lifting of his wife out of her sickbed, the lightness of her once-strong frame in his arms, the unexpected gratitude in the hands that slipped round his neck. Beside the living, companionable togetherness of them, which Peg had sometimes felt but never witnessed. It was a balm to her now. JJ carried Máire"

Ross (née Áine McCarthy) was raised in County Wexford, home to Vinegar Hill where 20,000 British soldiers put down The Rising of 1798, hence the title, After The Rising. It was an intensely personal experience for me to read this novel, because two of my ancestors were United Irishmen and my father's family was divided by that Rising, and later in the American Civil War, my ancestors were again divided as were thousands of others.

If you are interested in Irish history, in the contribution of women to that country, in the complexities of families striven by ideology, in the glory of the written word, you will want to read this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written contemporary fiction for lovers of the Irish December 22, 2011

By J.F.Penn

Format:Kindle Edition

The book opens as Jo Devereux arrives in a little village in Ireland for her mother's funeral. She hasn't been back for 20 years and the internal conflict Jo faces mark the start of this saga than spans generations. This is a beautifully written story that will draw you in and make you desperate for the sequel.

Why read this book?

* You want to know Jo's story as the setting flicks from her years growing up in Mucknamore, her doomed love for Rory and her escape from the claustrophobic Irish village. Jo's need for independence resonated with me and her anguish in the present timeframe makes for compelling reading.

* There are mysteries in the book, open loops in the lives of the players that fascinate and make you read on.

* I'm not Irish and my knowledge of Ireland's civil war is practically non-existent. This is, in part, a historical novel about a time in Ireland that few speak of so it was fascinating to read more about it from the perspectives of the characters involved. I also appreciated the effective use of language which is accessible to non-Irish readers but still gives a lovely cadence to the read. The dialogue is expertly done.

Recommended if you enjoy contemporary fiction with a historical thread.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Great story, but needs some proper editing January 18, 2012

By Jacey Nodin

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

There was a lot to like about this book. I agree with most of the other commenters in terms of the author's skillfullness in transitioning from one time period to another. But I would highly encourage a more careful editing. There are quite a few typos throughout the book, and small incongruencies where it appears edits were made and transitions not fixed, creating illogical paragraphs(Example, end of Chapter 15: Now as I run, one of those disconnected phrases comes rising in my mind. Did it say what I now think it said? Or am I imposing a meaning? Before knowing, I am out of bed, rustling through the pages, trying to find the paragraph...). I thought she was just running-now she is getting out of bed?
I am admittedly reluctant to recommend to others simply because of these kind of errors that I find annoying (Another example: The character Nora/Norah--the spelling changes throughout the book). But I will say that with a good copy editor, this book could become one of my all-time favorites. She is a gifted story teller.

More About the Author

ORNA ROSS is a London based Irish writer of novels and poems and the 'Go Creative! books. Formerly a features journalist, lecturing in Creative and Imaginative Practice at University College Dublin (WERRC), in 2012 she founded The Alliance of Independent Authors.

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ORNA SAYS:

"My NOVELS usually take the form of family-based dramas. Often they are historical fiction and usually there's a murder mystery or other buried secret from the past causing chaos in the present. I like to write emotional twists and surprises how a sentence is written, and the story constructed, is as important to me as plot. I write about big themes -- identity, family loyalty, truth, sex and death, the struggle between freedom and belonging.

My POEMS are simple and accessible and tend towards the inspirational. I think everyone should read a poem a day (keep a poetry book in the bathroom is my advice).

My NONFICTION is all about applying the creative process to everything in life. We've all been educated to neglect our creative capacities -- a big mistake, as the Creative Age overtakes the Information Age. Thankfully, like any other muscle, creative ability is ignited and revitalised just by being used. The 'Go Creative!' books point the way to developing this skill, for greater happiness, freedom and self-expression. .

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INSPIRATIONS:
#1: HISTORY: I agree with Mr Hartley that the past is, indeed, another country and it's my favourite place to travel -- reading and writing historical fiction is my favourite thing to do. I'm especially drawn to bohemian times and places where shackles are thrown off and creativity flourishes -- fin de siecle Paris (1890s); literary revival and revolutionary Ireland (1910/20s); hippy (1960s) and gay lib (1980s) San Francisco...

#2: GENDER: I write the kind of women's fiction that explores what it is to be a woman, in various times and places. But I think both men and women have feminine and masculine dimensions. We are all seeded by man and born of woman and we all carry 'male' and 'female' characteristics. How these play out, in an individual life and in different societies, is endlessly fascinating to me.

#3: IRELAND: I don't only write about Ireland but it is a strong influence. Because so many millions have emigrated from there, its stories reach beyond its own shores. There is always a particular flavour to Irish writing and readers tell me they experience in my books too.

#4: THE SEA: Everything I really needed to know, I could have learned by watching the waves.

#5: THE SPACE BETWEEN THE WORDS. About which the less said, the better.