From the two-time Man Booker short–listed author of The Secret Scripture comes a magnificent new novel that is the story of the twentieth century in America.

Told in the first person, as a narrative of Lilly Bere's life over seventeen days, On Canaan's Side opens as Lilly mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. Lilly revisits her past, going back to the moment she was forced to flee Ireland at the end of the First World War, and continues

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Three far-flung sisters come home to Martha's Vineyard one last time. Their mother's beach house is the only place any of them ever found true happiness and they need to begin the difficult process of letting go. Memories of their grandmother, mother, and their Irish father, who sailed away the year Dar turned twelve, rise up and expose the fine cracks in their family myth--especially when a cache of old letters reveals enough truth to send them back...

"When many think of Irish emigration, they think of potato blight and the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused so many to flee Ireland for the U.S. But the real history of the Irish diaspora is much longer, more complicated, and more global. Starting in the 17th century, Irish clerics, mercenaries, and merchants began to fan out across America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, setting in motion a pattern of migration that would play an essential...

Rudyard Kipling's epic rendition of the imperial experience in India is also his greatest long work. Born in India and growing into early manhood, Kim is the son of an Irish soldier born under British Imperial rule in 19th century India. Left in the care of a half-caste woman, Kim is free to explore the back allies and bazaars of Lahore. But when he meets with his father's old regiment he trades his native clothes for European suits and abandons his...

"One winter night, Peter Lake--master mechanic and second-story man--attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks it is empty , the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the affair between a middle-aged Irish burglar and Beverly Penn, a young girl dying of consumption. It is a love so powerful that Peter Lake, a simple and uneducated man, will be driven to stop time and bring back the dead."--