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On Canaan's Side - Sebastian Barry
On Canaan's Side
by: (author)
3.75 40
Told in the first person, as a narrative of her life over seventeen days, On Canaan's Side is the heartbreaking story of a woman whose capability to love is enormous and whose compassion, even for those who have wronged her, is astonishing. Sebastian Barry returns with the extraordinary story of... show more
Told in the first person, as a narrative of her life over seventeen days, On Canaan's Side is the heartbreaking story of a woman whose capability to love is enormous and whose compassion, even for those who have wronged her, is astonishing. Sebastian Barry returns with the extraordinary story of Lilly Bere. Forced to flee Ireland with her fiance' as a teenager, under threat of death from the Irish Republican Army, Lilly discovers herself in America. Her rich and tragic life takes her from Chicago, where her fiance' is brutally murdered, to Cleveland, where she marries and finds happiness even as she survives the Great Depression and World War II. Joyfully pregnant at forty-three, Lilly moves to Washington, DC, after her husband mysteriously disappears, where she finds work as a cook for one of the most prominent families in the country. Lilly follows the family to Bridgehampton, and there she raises her son, Ed, who at eighteen is called up to Vietnam and vanishes on his return to America. Mr. Nolan, a close friend, is dispatched to find him and returns from the Smoky Mountain wilderness not with Ed but with Ed's young son, Bill, whom Lilly will raise and adore--until tragedy strikes.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780670022922 (0670022926)
Publisher: Viking Adult
Pages no: 272
Edition language: English
Series: Dunne Family
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Community Reviews
Portable Magic
Portable Magic rated it
3.0 On Canaan’s Side ★★★☆☆
I had a lot I wanted to say about this book, as I had just finished it, but then I got into a long, work-related conversation with a colleague, and now I find my brain mostly empty of thoughts where this book is concerned. That, perhaps, is a good indicator of how deeply affected I was by it. Mostly...
The City Of Invention
The City Of Invention rated it
5.0 On The Wrong Side Of History
Like Sebastian Barry's other novels, On Canaan's Side examines the way individuals are crushed beneath the wheels of larger events and yet somehow manage to maintain a kind of dignity.Lily's father is the superintendent of police in Dublin at the time of the Irish War of Independence, which puts him...
madbkwm
madbkwm rated it
So I'm having trouble here with the rating. This is a 3 star book in the most un-obvious way; that is that there are parts of this novel that I would rate as 5 star and others that I would give a 1 star. And so, everything must average out.First, for my complaints. I felt like Barry was just tryi...
Breid
Breid rated it
4.0 On Canaan's Side
This is the most exquisitely written book, beautiful prose, wonderfully evocative, I would give it 10 stars if I could. I have taken my time reading this, savouring each and every paragraph. I have really enjoyed his plays, but this is the first novel by Sebastian Barry that I have read, and I am lo...
The Way She Reads
The Way She Reads rated it
4.0
On the first day after her grandson Billy dies, Lilly Bere, eighty-nine years old, starts writing down the story of her life before she intends to put an end to it.Over the next seventeen days she writes in her accounts book a story that starts in Ireland before World War I and ends in America durin...
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