Redemption Falls: A Novel [Paperback]

From the bestselling author ofStar of the SeaandShadowplay,a novel of epic power, ferocious grit, indomitable resolve, and shattering romance, set in a savage and lawless Western Territory in the aftermath of the Civil War.

1865—the Civil War is ending. Eighteen years after the Irish famine-shipStar of the Seadocked at New York, a daughter of its journey, Eliza Duane Mooney, sets out on foot from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crossing a ravaged continent on a quest. Eliza is searching for a young boy she has not seen in four years, one of the hundred thousand children drawn into the war. His fate has been mysterious and will prove extraordinary.

It is a walk that will have consequences for many seemingly unconnected survivors: the stunning intellectual Lucia-Cruz McLelland, who deserts New York City to cast her fate with mercurial hero James Con O'Keeffe—convict, revolutionary, and commander of a brigade of Irish immigrants in the Union Army turned governor of the desolate Western township of Redemption Falls; rebel guerilla Cole McLaurenson, who fuels his own gruesome Westward mission with the blind rage of an outlaw; and runaway slave Elizabeth Longstreet, who turns resentment into grace in a Western wilderness where nothing is as it seems.

Redemption Fallsis a Dickensian tale of war and forgiveness, of strangers in a strange land, of love put to the ultimate test. Packed with music, poetry, and storytelling, this is a vivid mosaic of a vast country driven wild by war (Irish Independent) and a riveting tale of urgent contemporary resonance.Joseph O'Connor is the bestselling author of numerous books, includingStar of the Sea, an international bestseller and winner of an American Library Association Award, as well asShadowplay, which won the Irish Novel of the Year Award in 2019. He has also written for the stage and screen. He is currently a professor of creative writing als1