Publication Date: February 10, 2009 | Series: Random House Large Print
In the summer of 1922, Robert Shannon, a Marine chaplain and a young American hero of the Great War, lands in Ireland. He still suffers from shell shock, and his mentor hopes that a journey Robert had always wanted to make—to find his family roots along the banks of the River Shannon—will restore his equilibrium and his vocation. But there is more to the story: On his return from the war, Robert had witnessed startling corruption in the Archdiocese of Boston. He has been sent to Ireland to secure his silence—permanently. As Robert faces the dangers of a strife-torn Ireland roiling in civil war, the nation’s myths and people, its beliefs and traditions, unfurl healingly before him. And the River Shannon gives comfort to the young man who is inspired by the words of his mentor: “Find your soul and you’ll live.”
“A rousing tale of forbidden love, civil war, horrible death and other things Irish. …A fine adventure in storytelling…[and] a well-crafted, satisfying work of historical fiction, as are all of Delaney’s novels; respectful of the facts while not cowed by them, and full of life.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A tale of personal healing and spiritual redemption against the Irish Civil war…Delaney takes great pains to evoke not only the physical but spiritual beauty of the land and people along the River Shannon. He provides incredibly researched details about not only the geological nature of a river winding its way to the sea but the mystical effect this simple body of water has had on its residents for millennia [and] provides timely insights about the raw, damaged output of war and the far-reaching impact it can have…This book is almost impossible to put down and provides a very satisfying, and maybe even surprising, conclusion to all the different storylines.”—Midwest Irish Focus
“Thoughtful, spiritual though not overbearing, and rounded out with a nice vein of intrigue.” —Publishers Weekly
'The Most Eloquent Man in the World', says NPR, about the writer, broadcaster, BBC host and Booker Prize Judge, Frank Delaney. Over a career of interviews that has lasted more than three decades, Delaney, an international-best-selling author himself, has interviewed more than 3,500 of the world's most important writers.
Frank Delaney has earned top prizes and best-seller status in a wide variety of formats, from prolific author, a polished broadcaster on both television and radio, to journalist, correspondent, screenwriter, lecturer, playwright and scholar. He has been the president of the Samuel Johnson Society, president of the UK Book Trust, and the Literary Director of the famed Edinburgh Festival.
A judge of many literary prizes (including the famous Booker), Delaney also created landmark programs and passionate documentaries on many subjects including Joyce, Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Hemingway, Mailer, Matisse, Van Gogh and the vitality and organic growth of the English language - his famed BBC show on the way we speak, Word of Mouth, is still heard all over the English-speaking world. And his six-part series, The Celts, originally broadcast in forty countries, is still in active DVD distribution, some twenty years after its launch.
Mr. Delaney lectures all over the world, writes every day, and has created a significant podcast series: Re:Joyce, deconstructing, examining and illuminating James Joyce's Ulysses line-by-line, in accessible and entertaining five-minute broadcasts, posted each week on this website. The project is estimated to run a quarter of a century.
Born and raised in County Tipperary, Ireland, Delaney spent more than twenty-five years in England before moving to the United States in 2002. His first 'American' book was the New York Times Bestseller, Ireland. His second, the non-fiction Simple Courage, was chosen as one of the top five books of the year by the American Library Association. Since 2006, he has published five Novels of Ireland, all addressing, decade by decade, the twentieth century history of his homeland. His latest novel, "The Last Storyteller" (Random House, February 7th 2012) celebrates the mysteries of the ancient oral tradition as the last itinerant storytellers work their magic in 1950's Ireland.
Mr. Delaney lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, writer and marketer, Diane Meier.
Delaney broadcasts "Re:Joyce," a weekly podcast on James Joyce's "Ulysses" on his website www.frankdelaney.com. You can find his daily writing tips on Twitter: http://twitter.com/FDbytheword
Shannon is another great novel from Frank Delaney, with all the good qualities you'd expect: it's quiet, dark, funny, thoughtful, violent, intelligent, literate, complex, and very elegant. It's a story about an American in Ireland, and the Irish in America, and the fragile survivor of one war thrust directly into another; and, of course, it's about a river in Ireland.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of this book, and I enjoyed it a great deal. Delaney is great at weaving multiple stories together into a single whole; he takes the story of his hero, Robert Shannon, and threads it through the lives of the villains and other characters of the tale - a cast of bishops, murderers, soldiers, and extraordinary ordinary people. I was unexpectedly caught up in the action: the book begins as a sort of spiritual pilgrimage, and evolves into a completely gripping and suspenseful drama.
Definitely check this out if you're interested in Ireland, Irish history, Irish folklore, WWI French battlefields, post-traumatic stress disorder, genealogy, scandals in the Catholic church, damaged heroes, and really good novels in general.
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Frank Delaney has written one of those rare books that you will remember reading for the rest of your life. If you love Ireland, this book will make you feel like you walked the length of the River Shannon with a lovely broken man, meeting a rich variety of Irish people, all the way to a most satisfying ending. Highly reccomended.
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Delaney fans will delight in the audiobook version of Shannon since the author himself narrates. Delaney does a superb job and his intimacy with the words adds an extra dimension to this gripping, touching, historical novel. I've read his other works, and it was a real treat to hear the author's own voice reading Shannon. Delaney provides touching insights into the ravages of war on a soldier's psyche. Shannon finds humor and poignancy within difficult topics. Don't miss this gripping work of historical fiction.
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