Lily Bere begins her story when she is eighty-nine years
old. Her only grandson, Bill, has just committed suicide.
Traveling back to the innocent age of nineteen, Lily begins
to share her story which takes her from war ravaged Ireland
across the Atlantic to The United States. Lily's story
directly intertwines with World War I, the Vietnam War, and
Desert Storm. Each war will leave a scar on Lily's soul
which time slowly heals, until life deals Lily Bere the
ultimate blow which seems impossible to surmount -- the
death of her grandson, Bill.
Lily was the daughter of a Dublin police officer. At a time
when Ireland was attempting to rid them of British rule.
Lily wonders how posterity will view her father, whose
allegiance is to the British Crown. Two pivotal events in
Ireland change Lily Bere's destiny. The death of her older
brother, Willie during the war left a painful emptiness in
her heart which would torment her until old age. But it
was her girlish infatuation with Tadg Bere who would take
Lily from her predictable life in Ireland and thrust her
into the uncertainty of life in the new world. After a
couple of young boys are brutally assassinated, members of
the IRA (The Irish Republican Army) begin to search to for
Tadg, who they believe was responsible for their deaths.
When Lily's father hears that the IRA intends to murder
Lily as well, Lily and Tadg are quickly ushered out of
Ireland to the safety of The United States.
Lily and Tadg cross the Atlantic and intend to begin a new
chapter in their lives in Chicago. At first Lily mourns the
life she left behind in Dublin: her home, her father, and
her sisters. But slowly Lily begins to fall in love with
the stranger who she was forced to flee with across an
ocean. Months later, just when Lily and Tadg begin to call
Chicago home, the newlyweds find themselves face to face
with the old enemy they thought they left behind in
Ireland.
Lily's story alternates between
her narration at eighty-nine years of age and the travails
she endured since she left Ireland at nineteen leading to
the death of her beloved grandson, Bill. Only after
reading the entirety of Lily Bere's trials and heartaches
will the readers understand the unbearable grief associated
with losing Bill.
Once in a few years I come across a novel which immediately
becomes a favorite I will reread through the years. After
reading only a few chapters of ON CANAAN'S SIDE, I knew
this would be one of those novels. Sebastian Barry's
eloquent voice shines through his storytelling placing him
in a league of his own in the literary world. ON CANAAN'S
SIDE is a journey through the human heart. It evokes the
resilience of the human spirit through adversity and the
power of love to heal the most unbearable wounds. Lily
Bere's story is both moving and inspiring.
From the two-time Man Booker shortlisted author of The Secret Scripture comes a magnificent new novel that is the story of the twentieth century in America.
Told in the first person, as a narrative of Lilly Bere's life over seventeen days, On Canaan's Side opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. Lilly revisits her past, going back to the moment she was forced to flee Ireland, at the end of the First World War, and continues her tale in America, a world filled with both hope and danger. At once epic and intimate, Lilly's story unfolds as she tries to make sense of the sorrows and troubles of her life and of the people whose lives she has touched. Spanning nearly seven decades, from the Great Depression to World War II and the Vietnam War, it is the heartbreaking story of a woman whose capability to love is enormous, and whose compassion, even for those who have wronged her, is astonishing.
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