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A Long, Long Way
- Author
- Sebastian Barry
- Narrator
- John Cormack
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 11 October 2022
- Run Time
- 9 hours 18 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
In 1914, Willie Dunne, barely eighteen years old, leaves behind Dublin, his family, and the girl he plans to marry in order to enlist in the Allied forces and face the Germans on the Western Front. Once there, he encounters a horror of violence and gore he could not have imagined and sustains his spirit with only the words on the pages from home and the camaraderie of the mud-covered Irish boys who fight and die by his side.
Dimly aware of the political tensions that have grown in Ireland in his absence, Willie returns on leave to find a world split and ravaged by forces closer to home. Despite the comfort he finds with his family, he knows he must rejoin his regiment and fight until the end. With grace and power, Sebastian Barry vividly renders Willie’s personal struggle as well as the overwhelming consequences of war.
Critics Review
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“Barry succeeds admirably in creating complex individuals who find themselves trapped in a brutal reality…Beautiful and soul-wrenching.”
Los Angeles Times
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“The story grips, shocks, and saddens; but most importantly refuses to be forgotten.”
The Times (London)
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“This is Sebastian Barry’s song of innocence and experience, composed with poetic grace and an eye, both unflinching and tender, for savage detail and moments of pure beauty. It is also an astonishing display of Barry’s gift for creating a memorable character, whom he has written, indelibly, back into a history which continues to haunt us.”
Colm Tóibín, author of Brooklyn
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Sebastian Barry
- Narrator
- John Cormack
- Duration
- 9 hours 18 minutes
- Release Date
- 11 October 2022
- ISBN
- 9798212225380
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Historical fiction, First World War fiction, War, combat and military adventure fiction, Fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
In 1914, Willie Dunne, barely eighteen years old, leaves behind Dublin, his family, and the girl he plans to marry in order to enlist in the Allied forces and face the Germans on the Western Front. Once there, he encounters a horror of violence and gore he could not have imagined and sustains his spirit with only the words on the pages from home and the camaraderie of the mud-covered Irish boys who fight and die by his side. Dimly aware of the political tensions that have grown in Ireland in his absence, Willie returns on leave to find a world split and ravaged by forces closer to home. Despite the comfort he finds with his family, he knows he must rejoin his regiment and fight until the end. With grace and power, Sebastian Barry vividly renders Willie’s personal struggle as well as the overwhelming consequences of war.
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