The latest novel by the New York Times bestselling author Frank Delaney based on a little-known but powerful story line about Irish history.
""My wooing began in passion, was defined by violence and circumscribed by land; all
these elements molded my soul."" So writes Charles O'Brien, the unforgettable hero
of bestselling author Frank Delaney's extraordinary novel-a sweeping epic of
obsession, profound devotion, and compelling history involving a turbulent era that
would shape modern Ireland.
Born into a respected Irish-Anglo family in 1860, Charles
loves his native land and its long-suffering but irrepressible people. As a healer,
he travels the countryside dispensing traditional cures while soaking up stories
and legends of bygone times-and witnessing the painful, often violent birth of land-reform
measures destined to lead to Irish independence.
At the age of forty, summoned to
Paris to treat his dying countryman-the infamous Oscar Wilde-Charles experiences
the fateful moment of his life. In a chance encounter with a beautiful and determined
young Englishwoman, eighteen-year-old April Burke, he is instantly and passionately
smitten-but callously rejected. Vowing to improve himself, Charles returns to Ireland,
where he undertakes the preservation of the great and abandoned estate of Tipperary,
in whose shadow he has lived his whole life-and which, he discovers, may belong to
April and her father.
As Charles pursues his obsession, he writes the ""History""
of his own life and country. While doing so, he meets the great figures of the day,
including Charles Parnell, William Butler Yeats, and George Bernard Shaw. And he
also falls victim to less well-knowncharacters-who prove far more dangerous. Tipperary also features a second ""historian-"" a present-day commentator, a retired and obscure
history teacher who suddenly discovers that he has much at stake in the telling of
Charles's story.
In this gloriously absorbing and utterly satisfying novel, a man' s passion for the woman he loves is twinned with his country's emergence as a nation.
With storytelling as sweeping and dramatic as the land itself, myth, fact, and fiction
are all woven together with the power of the great nineteenth-century novelists.
Tipperary once again proves Frank Delaney's unrivaled mastery at bringing Irish history
to life.
Praise for Tipperary
""The narrative moves swiftly and
surely. . . . A sort of Irish Gone With the Wind, marked by sly humor, historical awareness
and plenty of staying power.""-Kirkus Reviews
""Another meticulously researched
journey...
Delaney's careful scholarship and compelling storytelling bring it uniquely
alive. Highly recommended.""-Library Journal (starred)
