From Publishers Weekly
Seventy-five years after the death of Charles O'Brien, an Anglo-Irish itinerant healer and occasional journalist born in 1860, his memoir is discovered in a trunk. The result is this touching novel from Ireland author Delaney, in which the manuscript's putative discoverer adds his own unreliable commentary to the fictive Charles's probably embellished perceptionsmaking for a glowing composite of a volatile Ireland. Charles claims to treat Oscar Wilde on his deathbed; advise a young James Joyce (When you write... be sure to make it complicated. It will retain people's attention); tell an appreciative Yeats the story of Finn MacCool; and inadvertently bring down Charles Stewart Parnell. He also meets the founders and leaders of Sinn Fein and the IRA, and will, as will Ireland itself, entwine his fate with theirs. And at 40, never-married Charles meets the love of his life, 18-year-old April Burke, an Englishwoman who repeatedly spurns him and exploits him, but who has a large role to play in his life. The narrator claims that his interest in Charles and April is academic, but he eventually confesses that he suspects their stories have some personal relationship to his own. Delaney's confident storytelling and quirky characterizations enrich a fascinating and complex period of Irish history. (Nov.)
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Product Description
My wooing began in passion, was defined by violence and circumscribed by land; all these elements molded my soul. So writes Charles OBrien, the unforgettable hero of bestselling author Frank Delaneys extraordinary new novela 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 timesand 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 countrymanthe infamous Oscar WildeCharles 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 smittenbut 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 lifeand 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-knowncharacterswho 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 Charless story.
In this gloriously absorbing and utterly satisfying novel, a mans passion for the woman he loves is twinned with his countrys 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 Delaneys unrivaled mastery at bringing Irish history to life.
Praise for Frank Delaneys TIPPERARY:
[T]he narrative moves swiftly and surelyA sort of Irish Gone With the Wind, marked by sly humor, historical awareness and plenty of staying power. Kirkus Reviews
[A]nother meticulously researched journeyDelaneys careful scholarship and compelling storytelling bring it uniquely alive. Highly recommended. Library Journal (starred)
Sophisticated and creative. Booklist
Delaneys confident storytelling and quirky characterizations enrich a fascinating and complex period of Irish history. Publishers Weekly
Read just a few sentences of Frank Delaneys writing and youll see why National Public Radio called him the worlds most eloquent man. Kirkus Reviews, Big Book Guide 2007