A beautiful and elegaic novel of World War I encompasses the complexities of Irish involvement in the war, a divided family, and amoving love story
Dublin, 1914. As Ireland stands on the brink of political crisis, Europe plunges headlong into war. Among the thousands of Irishmen who volunteer to fight for the British Army is Stephen Ryan, a gifted young mathematics scholar whose working class background has marked him out as a misfit among his wealthy fellow students. Sent to fight in Turkey, his romantic notions of war are soon shattered, and he is unaware of the scale of the growing unrest back home in Ireland. When he returns home in 1916 he finds Dublinin the grip ofrebellion and his own brother fighting for the rebels. Everythingis utterlychanged, and in a world gone mad his only hope is his growing friendship with the brilliant and enigmatic Lillian Bryce. The first entryin thispoignant, deeply movingtrilogy isa tribute to the durability of the human soul.
