The Promise of Light A Novel

by Watkins, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780312267667
• ISBN10: 0312267665
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-04
• Publisher: Picador

Summary

It is 1921, and young Ben Sheridan's Irish-American father mysteriously dies in their small Rhode Island town. Determined to learn the truth about his family's cloudy past, he sets sail for Ireland, and quickly becomes involved in a struggle between soldiers of the newly formed Irish Republican Army and the brutal British troops. Amidst the lush and rugged Irish countryside, and the horrible violence unfolding across it, Ben must search for the truth of his identity, and the ties of his family's blood.

Author Biography

Paul Watkins is also the author of the novels The Forger,The Story of My Disappearance,In the Blue Light of African Dreams, Archangel, Calm at Sunset, Calm at Dawn, and Night Over Day Over Night (all in print with Picador USA), and the memoir Stand Before Your God. He lives with his family in Princeton, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

"Superbly crafted...Myth and archetype are all over the place in The Promise of Light, as real as the craving for independence or the hills of Connemara." --The Boston Globe

"Watkins is a territic writer...His books are lucid, intelligent and shamelessly entertaining, written in lean, evocative prose and displaying an uncommon delight in storytelling." --Washington Post Book World

"A full-fashioned romantic...Watkins is aware of every burning cottage, every hedgerow ambush, every body thrown on the road - of the powerful emotional magic of that distance scene." --The New Yorker

"Plaintive, beautifully realized." --The Chicago Tribune

"The Promise of Light is that rare find, an action-packed book written in prose as sharp as the crack of rifle fire, as evocative as the smell of burning peat." --The Providence Journal