A Long, Long Way
Synopsis
Barely eighteen years old, Willie Dunne leaves Dublin in 1914 to fight for the Allied cause, largely unaware of the growing political and religious tensions festering back home. A Long Long Way evokes the camaraderie of Willie’s regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, but also the cruelty and sadness of war, and the divided loyalties that tore at many Irish soldiers. Tracing their experiences through the course of the war, the narrative vividly dramatises the events of the Easter Rising within Ireland, and explores how such a seminal political moment came to affect those boys who were fighting for the King of England on foreign fields.
Author Biography
Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. His plays include Boss Grady’s Boys (1988), The Steward of Christendom (1995), Our Lady of Sligo (1998) and The Pride of Parnell Street (2007). His novels include The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), Annie Dunne (2002) and A Long Long Way (2005), and he has won, among other awards, the Irish-America Fund Literary Award, the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize. A Long Long Way, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2005 and the Dublin International Impac Prize, was the Dublin: One City One Book choice for 2007. He lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children.
