Synopses & Reviews
From the bestselling and PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of
Netherland, a fascinating, personal, and beautifully crafted family history.
Joseph O'Neill's grandfathers--one Turkish, one Irish--were both imprisoned for suspected subversion during the Second World War. The Irish grandfather, a handsome rogue from a family of small farmers, was an active member of the IRA. O'Neill's other grandfather, a debonair hotelier from the tiny and threatened Turkish Christian minority, was interned by the British in Palestine on suspicion of being an Axis spy.
With intellect, compassion, and grace, O'Neill sets the stories of these individuals against the history of the last century's most inhuman events.
Synopsis
O'Neill's grandfathers--one Irish, one Turkish--were both imprisoned during World War II. An illustrative, riveting narrative of politics, murder, and espionage, this book is also a personal exploration of the ties and limits of kinship.
About the Author
Joseph O'Neill was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1964 and grew up in Mozambique, South Africa, Iran, Turkey, and Holland. His works include the novels Netherland, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, This Is The Life, and The Breezes. He writes regularly for The Atlantic Monthly. He lives with his family in New York City.