'Ciarán McMenamin confirms his exceptional talent with this admirably powerful and authentic novel about the First World War and the struggle for Irish independence. Tremendous' William Boyd Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Annie, Francie and Archie were inseparable growing up, but in 1914 the boys are seduced by the drama of the Great War. Before leaving their small Irish village for the trenches, Francie promises his true love Annie that he will bring her little brother home safe. Six years later Francie is on the run, a wanted man in the Irish war of Independence. He needs Annie's help to escape safely across the border, but that means confronting the truth about why Archie never came back.... For readers of Sebastian Faulks, Ian McEwan and Sebastian Barry

The literary master work by award-winning Australian crime writer Garry Disher

The battle of Fredericksburg is usually remembered as the most lopsided Union defeat of the Civil War. The authors have worked for years along Fredericksburg's Sunken Road and Stone Wall, and they've escorted thousands of visitors across the battlefield. This book not only recounts Fredericksburg's tragic story of slaughter, but includes invaluabl

“This is Dickens in the present tense, Dickens for the twenty-first century.”—Roddy Doyle, The New York Times Book Review An Irishman in nineteenth-century England is forced to take sides when his nephew joins the bloody underground movement for independence in this propulsive novel from the acclaimed author of The North Water. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The New York Public Library • New Statesman • Publishers Weekly Manchester, England, 1867. The rebels will be hanged at dawn, and their brotherhood is already plotting its revenge. Stephen Doyle, an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War, arrives in Manchester from New York with a thirst for blood. He has joined the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland by any means necessary. Head Constable James O’Connor has fled grief and drink in Dublin for a sober start in Manchester. His job is to discover and thwart the Fenians’ plans whatever they might be. When a long-lost nephew arrives on O’Connor’s doorstep looking for work, he cannot foresee the way his fragile new life will be imperiled—and how his and Doyle’s fates will become fatally intertwined. In this propulsive tale of the underground war for Irish independence, the author of The North Water once again transports readers to a time when blood begot blood. Moving from the dirt and uproar of industrial Manchester to the quiet hills of rural Pennsylvania, The Abstainer is a searing novel in which two men, haunted by their pasts and driven forward by the need for justice and retribution, must fight for life and legacy.

"'Good evening, I'm Ric Cottom' is the well-recognized introduction to Your Maryland on WYPR. When, in 2001, Ric signed on to deliver a weekly segment on Maryland history during All Things Considered on WYPR, his was the first short-form radio spot the station featured. Ric narrates little-known human interest stories from any point in Maryland's past, from the early colonial period through the start of the twentieth century. He discovered many of the stories during his time as the director of the Maryland Historical Society, researching factual histories that he could deliver in a storytelling format. The genre is unique, blending narrative or literary nonfiction with regional history. The mission behind Ric's segment is to entertain his audience while sparking their interest in history. Ric has an unusual talent for discovering stories and weaving them into a fascinating narrative. All scenes from Maryland history are fitting for 'Your Maryland.' Ric carefully selects stories that he can convey with some comedy. Even those stories with heavier subject matter, as in the short biography of gunsmith and executioner John Dandy, are conveyed with some dark humor and levity. The volume here collects approximately half of all of the 'Your Maryland' stories Ric has composed over the years and presents them in chronological format. It is the type of book that people might read a little bit at a time, perhaps out of order, and not necessarily cover-to-cover. It's designed as a little book for a very broad audience of Marylanders"--Provided by publisher.

A gripping prequel to Garry Disher’s Peace, the must-read Australian rural crime novel of 2019

The first book-length study of two overlooked engagements that helped turned the tide of a pivotal Civil War battle. By May of 1863, the stone wall at the base of Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg, Virginia, loomed large over the Army of the Potomac, haunting its men with memories of slaughter from their crushing defeat there the previous December. They would assault it again with a very different result the following spring. This time the Union troops wrested the wall and high ground from the Confederates and drove west into the enemy’s rear. The inland drive stalled in heavy fighting at Salem Church. Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front is the first book to examine Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church and the central roles they played in the final Southern victory. Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have long appreciated the pivotal roles these engagements played in the Chancellorsville campaign, and just how close the Southern army came to grief—and the Union army to stunning success. Together they seamlessly weave their extensive newspaper, archival, and firsthand research into a compelling narrative to better understand these combats, which usually garner little more than a footnote to the larger story of Stonewall Jackson’s march and fatal wounding. Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front offers a thorough examination of the decision-making, movements, and fighting that led to the bloody stalemate at Salem Church, as Union soldiers faced the horror of an indomitable wall of stone—and an undersized Confederate division stood up to a Union juggernaut.

Follow an epic story of the Viking Age that traces the historical trail of an ancient piece of jewelry found in a Viking grave in England to its origins thousands of miles east in India. An acclaimed bioarchaeologist, Catrine Jarman has used cutting-edge forensic techniques to spark her investigation into the history of the Vikings who came to rest in British soil. By examining teeth that are now over one thousand years old, she can determine childhood diet—and thereby where a person was likely born. With radiocarbon dating, she can ascertain a death-date down to the range of a few years. And her research offers enlightening new visions of the roles of women and children in Viking culture. Three years ago, a Carnelian bead came into her temporary possession. River Kings sees her trace the path of this ancient piece of jewelry back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings’ route was far more varied than we might think—that with them came people from the Middle East, not just Scandinavia, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, all the way to Britain. Told as a riveting history of the Vikings and the methods we use to understand them, this is a major reassessment of the fierce, often-mythologized voyagers of the North—and of the global medieval world as we know it.

This is written as a first-person account of the Battle of Fredericksburg during the American Civil War. Longstreet was a lieutenant general on the Confederate side. This battle was one of the bloodiest of the whole war and certainly extremely important.

‘We’re in the back of a car belonging to the men our mothers told us to never get in the back of a car of. I close my eyes and wonder how many girls will come to my funeral.’ Vincent Patrick Duffy has already checked out. Trapped between Skintown’s narrow horizons, he chops ribs and chickens in a takeaway, dreaming of escape, joint after freshly rolled joint. A mindless act of kindness leads to the unlikeliest of business opportunities. Where the government has failed, might the second summer of love and a little pill with a dove on it be the broom to sweep away the hatred and replace it with love, so much love? Skintown is Vinny’s drink- and drug-fuelled odyssey through fighting, fishing, rioting, romance, reconciliation and acid house. Bristling with a restless energy and drunk on black humour, this superb debut is a wild ride. ---- 'Ciaran McMenamin writes brilliantly ... Horrifying and hilarious, Skintown is a compulsive read.' Liz Nugent 'Lures the reader into the madcap night and then delivers a hairpin twist.' Irish Times 'A supercharged riot of a debut novel, zinging with confidence and intelligence.' Joseph O'Connor