Thomas Flanagan’s Year of the French

The publication of Hilary Mantel’s new book, Bringing Up the Bodies, sequel to Wolf Hall, has sparked a resurgent interest in historical fiction. One of the titles that she has frequently recommended is The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan. The Year of the French is about the Irish Rebellion of 1798 (Éirí Amach 1798) when a band of Irish patriots, with a company of French Republican troops, land in County Mayo in western Ireland, defeat the English at Castlebar, set up the short lived Republic of Connaught, and then eventually lose at the battle of Ballinamuck.

Read More

“Men do not like to die. But from time to time, given that they do not have to knot the rope themselves, they like the kill.”

— page 220 of The Judges of the Secret Court by David Stacton. Most of the book is as blunt as this quote, and as ugly as you might think a book about John Wilkes Booth and Lincoln’s assassination and the chaotic aftermath of Washington DC and the South after the Civil War would be. It is relentless, and painful, and it is beautiful. Read it immediately. (via bookavore)