Staff Pick
Another blockbuster by Timothy Egan! This time it’s the riveting story of an astonishing figure, Irishman Thomas Meagher, who overcame surprising odds to become a hero in his home country and America. Egan’s dramatic biography is not just a portrait of Meagher; it also illumines the beginnings of the great Irish-American story. Recommended By Michal D., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The National Book Award–winning author of The Worst Hard Time illuminates the dawn of the great Irish American story, with all its twists and triumphs, through the life of one heroic man.
In this exciting and illuminating work, National Book Award winner Timothy Egan delivers a story, both rollicking and haunting, of one of the most famous Irish Americans of all time. A dashing young orator during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony for life. But two years later he was “back from the dead” and in New York, instantly the most famous Irishman in America. Meagher’s rebirth included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. Afterward, he tried to build a new Ireland in the wild west of Montana — a quixotic adventure that ended in the great mystery of his disappearance, which Egan resolves convincingly at last.
Review
"Thomas Meagher’s is an irresistible story, irresistibly retold by the virtuosic Timothy Egan.... A gripping, novelistic page-turner." Wall Street Journal
Review
"This is marvelous stuff. Thomas F. Meagher strides onto Egan's beautifully wrought pages just as he lived — powerfully larger than life. A fascinating account of an extraordinary life." Daniel James Brown, author of The Boys in the Boat
Review
"Egan has a gift for sweeping narrative... and he has a journalist’s eye for the telltale detail.... This is masterly work." New York Times Book Review
Review
"An old-fashioned tale of tall talk, high ideals,and irresistible appeal.... You will not read a historical thriller like this all year... [Egan] is a master storyteller." Boston Globe
About the Author
Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, a New York Times columnist, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in nonfiction. His previous books include The Worst Hard Time, which won a National Book Award, and the national bestseller The Big Burn. He lives in Seattle, Washington.