After The Rising: An Epic Tale of Love, Loss and Redemption

Amazon Customer: “If you have not seen the day of Revolution in a small town where all know all in the town and always have known all, you have seen nothing.” — Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Scribner Classics, 1996. p. 106.

Though partially of Irish stock, I confess to scant knowledge of the Emerald Isle’s history apart from the dates of the 1916 Easter Rising and the gaining of Independence in 1922. So Orna Ross’s After the Rising was a compelling introduction, not least because the beguiling lilt of her prose situates one sure-footedly in a deceptively sleepy burg beyond the Irish Sea. Using various first-person narrative voices in the form of letters and diaries, the novel moves between the events of 1922, the 60s and 70s when the predominant narrator is at school and university, and 1995, when she returns to her village for her mother’s funeral and to confront the family’s history, rent by national politics and local rancour. Such a weaving back and forth between periods allows for an overview of the novel’s historical reach, reminding readers that today’s fervent youth will be but a dusty phrase in tomorrow’s history books.

If I was surprised to...

United Kingdom on Dec 23, 2016

Debbie: This beautifully written literary novel describes the impact of the 1916 Irish Rising against British rule in a complex plot across several time frames. Jo Devereux, returning to Wexford for her mother's funeral after 20 years of self-imposed exile abroad, is tasked to write the family history from a suitcase of old letters and diaries. Slowly Jo unravels family secrets that tore her country and community apart in the 1920s, explaining the bitter rift between her family and that of her first love, Rory. The process helps her come to terms with the crisis in her own life and to move on.

No history book could reveal with as much compassion the impact of the Irish conflict on successive generations. Although the novel explains the political background subtly and effectively, its greatest power is to convey the human suffering of individuals: lovers and soul-mates parted by political enmity, parents torn apart by the loss of their children dying for the cause, siblings who should have been each other's comforters turned into strangers.

This expertly crafted novel is an important work in terms of Irish social history, but it will also be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates...

United Kingdom on Mar 10, 2015

Deirdre McIntosh: Be warned, the Kindle edition of this novel is missing a crucial prologue section titled: Norah 1925 in which a central character is found dead, his body half buried in quicksand. I only found this out when I went to a book club meeting and all we Kindle readers discovered that the book began very differently in the paperback version.

The missing section can be read if you click on the Amazon link to the paperback copy and view the sample chapter, which is the missing prologue. Make sure you read it first. As someone from the book club said, "those of us who missed the prologue read a totally different novel to the others." That's how important it is.

Otherwise I'd give the book four stars for historical detail, excellent characterisation and deft handling of three different time-lines.

United Kingdom on Jul 12, 2014

ARCubitt: After the Rising is a part coming of age story, part historical novel, dealing as it does with the Irish Civil War in the 1920s. Told from the point of view of Jo Devereux in the present and the letters, diaries and journals of her female relatives filling in the narrative in the 1920s, it is an ambitious, epic of a novel.

Jo is charged with writing the family history over the three generations but when she gradually uncovers the secrets of the past she is confronted by the knowledge that she too is as much part of the story as the earlier generations and so can scarcely be objective. No wonder she struggles with writer's block.....
I don't have anyone left alive now to ask about the impact of the Irish Civil War on my own family as by then both of my Irish great uncles had already been killed in the First World War. And so After the Rising is an important book for me as it goes some way towards explaining what the conflict meant to ordinary people. Families who might have lived amicably, side by side were torn apart because of their politics and the repercussions felt down the generations.
The characters in this book are so vivid that they seem to leap off the page...

United Kingdom on Sep 10, 2013

ElaineG: Jo Devereaux returns to Ireland for the first time in 20 years to attend her mother's funeral. She is entrusted with a suitcase containing 70 year old letters and diaries belonging to her grandmother which tell the story of her family's involvement with the freedom movement of the 1920s. Jo's task is to put pen to paper and write the story, a story of love and revenge which could hold the key as to why the Parle/Devereaux and O'Donovan families, who were once so close have hated each other with a passion for the last 70 years.

What follows is a haunting, gripping tale, extremely well written of the freedom fights of the 1920s, but mainly from the perspective of the women who played a key role in the struggles, which makes a refreshing change from the usual male orientated books about the Irish struggles that are available. All this is intertwined with Jo's life story told in flashback and especially her teenage relationship with Rory O'Donovan which, because of their families' animosity, seemed doomed from the start.

I was glad to see that there is a sequel, as the book does seem to finish with some questions left tantalisingly unanswered and I can't wait to find out...

United Kingdom on Jul 15, 2012

Leila Smith: `WARNING!' they shout. `DANGER! The Sands on this side of the Point are Unstable and Unsafe. Do not Diverge from the Path.'

Orna Ross has written a masterpiece and in this age of exaggeration and hyperbole I hope I can convey just how exceptional is her book After The Rising.

There is not a spare word nor a trite phrase anywhere in this book - the prose is absolutely gorgeous.

She clearly and lyrically tells the story of Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann (The Irish Civil War) and its after effects through the research and recollections of Jo Devereux, who has come into possession of a chest containing her family's terrible secrets. The war between the Free Staters and the Republicans claimed thousands of Irish lives and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael live on as reminders of that terrible conflict.

A wise nun leading a pre-Cana class told me years ago that the social pathology of a family muscles its way inexorably from generation to generation unless some one person consciously decides to stop it and repair the damage. In Orna's book, we follow that damage in the Parle, O'Donovan and Devereux families.

Orna writes a battle scene as well as anyone, and in...

United States on May 13, 2012

Patti Phillips: This lovingly written novel deals with the underlying subject of The Easter Uprising, a turnaround time in Irish politics. Ireland had been under English rule since 1169, an uneasy union at best, and at its worst, a blood-soaked thorn in the English side.
Many in Ireland resented having to work in virtual servitude for English Lords who robbed them of their land or sent resources back to England. That resentment exploded in Dublin on a sunny Easter Sunday in 1916.

"After the Rising" begins in 1995, with Jo's notification of her mother's death. Jo travels to the village of Mucknamore, Ireland, all the way from San Francisco, filled with guilt and grief and anger. Jo hasn't been back in twenty years. She hears the Will and at first, refuses to follow its directive: create a family history from the notes and letters left behind in a blue suitcase. Jo doesn't want to be in Mucknamore, let alone write about the very people that drove her crazy. But, she needs to exorcise her demons and the story begins in earnest, drawing us in as Jo tries to break free.

Three generations of women from Jo's family tell their stories in the letters. Stories of the war between the Irish...

United States on Mar 09, 2012