De zoon van een uitsmijter van een bordeel in Dublin vertelt over zijn leven vanaf zijn geboorte in 1902 tot en met de Burgeroorlog in de jaren twintig.
De laatste veedrift Reeks
Deze epische sage volgt het turbulente leven van een rebel door belangrijke momenten in de Ierse geschiedenis. Van de ruige straten van Dublin tot de strijd voor vrijheid, het verhaal verkent persoonlijke offers en complexe moralen in het hart van een nationale opstand. Beleef een reis van weeskind tot een icoon van verzet, waar liefde en loyaliteit meedogenloze druk ervaren. Het is een krachtig verhaal over identiteit, traditie en het vinden van je plaats in een wereld die wordt bepaald door conflict.
Aanbevolen leesvolgorde
Oh, Play That Thing
- 384bladzijden
- 14 uur lezen
It's 1924, and New York is the centre of the universe. Henry Smart, on the run from Dublin, falls on his feet. He is a handsome man with a sandwich board, behind which he stashes hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. He catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district and soon there are eyes on his back and men in the shadows. It is time to leave, for another America- Chicago is wild and new, and newest of all is the music. Furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. His music is everywhere, coming from every open door, every phonograph. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his colour; there are places a black man cannot go, things he cannot do. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart.
The Dead Republic
- 336bladzijden
- 12 uur lezen
At the end of the second volume of Roddy Doyle's trilogy about Henry Smart, Henry, having lost a leg in a railway accident, crawls into the Utah desert to die, only to be found by John Ford, who is filming a Western. Ford sees a kindred spirit in Henry, a former boy volunteer in the 1916 Easter Rising and a hitman for Michael Collins, and decides to make a film about his life, appointing him as 'IRA consultant' for The Quiet Man. The narrative picks up in 1951 as Henry returns to Ireland for the first time since his escape in 1922, accompanied by Ford and stars John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Ford's intense meetings aim to extract Henry's essence for Hollywood. A decade later, now a school caretaker in Dublin and known as 'Hoppy Henry' due to his wooden leg, Henry becomes a hero after a bomb blast leaves him legless. The Provos embrace him as a symbol of resilience, and as the peace process unfolds in secrecy, Henry discovers new roles to play. Through three compelling novels, Doyle captures the entirety of Ireland's twentieth-century history and crafts a remarkable character in Henry Smart.