Winner of the Lost Man Booker Prize
1919: After surviving the Great War, Major Brendan Archer makes his way to Ireland, hoping to discover whether he is indeed betrothed to Angela Spencer, whose Anglo-Irish family owns the once-aptly-named Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough. But his fianc#65533;e is strangely altered and her family's fortunes have suffered a spectacular decline. The hotel's hundreds of rooms are disintegrating on a grand sca≤ its few remaining guests thrive on rumors and games of whist; herds of cats have taken over the Imperial Bar and the upper stories; bamboo shoots threaten the foundations; and piglets frolic in the squash court. Meanwhile, the Major is captivated by the beautiful and bitter Sarah Devlin. As housekeeping disasters force him from room to room, outside the order of the British Empire also totters: there is unrest in the East, and in Ireland itself the mounting violence of "the troubles."
Troubles is a hilarious and heartbreaking work by a modern master of the historical novel.
1919: After surviving the Great War, Major Brendan Archer makes his way to Ireland, hoping to discover whether he is indeed betrothed to Angela Spencer, whose Anglo-Irish family owns the once-aptly-named Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough. But his fianc#65533;e is strangely altered and her family's fortunes have suffered a spectacular decline. The hotel's hundreds of rooms are disintegrating on a grand sca≤ its few remaining guests thrive on rumors and games of whist; herds of cats have taken over the Imperial Bar and the upper stories; bamboo shoots threaten the foundations; and piglets frolic in the squash court. Meanwhile, the Major is captivated by the beautiful and bitter Sarah Devlin. As housekeeping disasters force him from room to room, outside the order of the British Empire also totters: there is unrest in the East, and in Ireland itself the mounting violence of "the troubles."
Troubles is a hilarious and heartbreaking work by a modern master of the historical novel.
- Details
- Full Record
- Additional Info
Searching for more content…
Searching for more content…
Publisher:
New York : New York Review of Books, c1970.
ISBN:
9781590170182
1590170180
1590170180
Branch Call Number:
FIC Farre
Characteristics:
xi, 459 p.
Opinion
From Library Staff
From Library Staff
Winner of the "Lost Man Booker Prize" awarded in 2010, it's funny, sad and beautifully written. Major Brendan Archer has travelled to Ireland to visit his fiancee at the crumbling Majestic Hotel. But this is 1919 - and things in Ireland are about to erupt. A fine novel set in a transiti... Read More »
From the critics
Community Activity
Comment
Add a CommentEmpire Trilogy. A defining portrait of the English in Ireland. It is set in post-WW I Ireland and told from an Anglo-Irish perspective.
I didn't finish it. It lost my interest.
A very different perspective of the Irish/English conflict. A real hard slog at times but worth it.