With acclaimed works like The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty, Irish author Sebastian Barry has earned a reputation as a "master storyteller" (The Wall Street Journal). In A Long Long Way he has created an unforgettable portrait of the horrors of war through the story of Willie Dunne, a young man who leaves his native Dublin in 1914 to join the Allies on the Western Front. Caught between the catastrophic violence he encounters there and the growing political tension at home over Irish independence, Willie finds himself confronting unbearable choices regarding family, patriotism, and the devotion he feels toward his regiment. A deeply affecting portrayal of personal struggle and the consequences of war, this is one of Barry's most powerful accomplishments.

"Barry succeeds admirably in creating complex individuals who find themselves trapped in a brutal reality... Beautiful and soul-wrenching." Los Angeles Times

"The story grips, shocks and saddens; but most importantly refuses to be forgotten." The Times (London)

Readers meet Willie Dunne when he is still a gifted boy growing up in Dublin and follow him--through a diary and letters home--into battle during World War II where he must shoulder the unending internal damages of the war along with the hatred of his own countrymen for fighting for Britain.

Willie Dunne is a gifted and bright boy, growing up in Dublin with his three younger sisters. His policeman father works under the British regime of the early 1900s and has plans for Willie to do the same, but Willie dreams of marrying his girlfriend and becoming a builder. WWI changes all that. Willie goes off to battle on the Western Front in 1915, and his life is never the same. We follow him there through the letters he writes home, and a diary he keeps. Willie must shoulder the unending internal damages of the war along with the hatred of his own countrymen for fighting for Britain. Sebastian Barry captures this brutal war and the life of Willie with masterful grace and lyrical skill.

Sebastian Barry is a novelist and author of the award-winning play The Steward of Christendom.