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Kathryn Gann has commented on (1) product.

On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry

Kathryn Gann, January 1, 2013

For a short book, this one packs a wallop. Sebastian Barry explores the themes of love, grief, memory, war, and the 20th Century through seventeen days in the life of Lilly Bere, as told from her first-person perspective. I was hooked on page 4 where Lilly comments on grief following her grandson's death: "I am so terrified by grief that there is solace in nothing. I carry in my skull a sort of molten sphere instead of a brain, and I am burning there, with horror, and misery." I had both an emotional and a visceral response to those words. There is nothing predictable about this story, and the twists and turns force the reader to confront all the aforementioned themes. The book has resonated with me for a year, and I'm sure it will continue to seep into my thinking as time goes on. Just as "A Long, Long Way" by the same author has done (and I read that over 5 years ago).

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