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The Sunken Road

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The Sunken Road

By: Ciaran McMenamin
Narrated by: Ciarán McMenamin
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About this listen

A powerful and gripping novel about love, loyalty and obsession set during World War One and the Irish War of Independence.

Francie, Archie and Annie grew up playing together in the hills and rivers of Fermanagh. But in 1914, the boys are seduced by the drama of the war in Europe and leave the village to join up. Before they leave, Francie swears to Annie that he'll keep her little brother safe.

Six years later Francie is hiding out in the barn of Annie's house. He hasn't seen her since that day. He's on the run, a wanted man in the war for independence that is still igniting along the border. And the British officer who is obsessively pursuing him is his old commander from the Western Front. To reach safety, Francie will need Annie's help getting over the border, and that means he'll have to confront the truth about why Archie never came back.

Powerfully gripping, Ciaran McMenamin's accomplished novel explores loyalty, love, heroism and the heartbreaking cost of violence.

©2021 Ciaran McMenamin (P)2021 W F Howes 20th Century Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction War & Military World Literature World War I War Military

Critic reviews

"Tremendous." (William Boyd)
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I have not had a book that compelled me to keep listening for years. I was hooked.

held my attention right through

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Really enjoyed this book.Brilliantly narrated by the author. A tough listen at stages but these were brutal times in our history

Great listen

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Great performance my friend. An intricate, raw and moving story. Beautifully written with poetic humour and prose.
Performed brilliantly and sensitively as well.

A fantastic novel.

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This book is like music to the ears! It is beautifully narrated and emotively written.

I haven’t even finished it and I adore it

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listened to this on the back of skintown. Ciaran does for Northern Irish language what Irving Welsh did for glaswegan. he captured the dead pan nature of ulster sarcasm. He brought complexity to the character dynamic. think les miserables without so much "wailing and gurning" and "all that all shite"

the javert and Jean val Jean similarities with Crozier and Francie lead you down a path and take a quick left turn.

Netflix must make this a limited series. For those that will dismiss this story as the protagonist is an IRA man two things are important firstly this was pre troubles for northern ireland and a different IRA and secondly Ciaran constructs a multidimensional character in francie with enough depth to sympathise with him and hate him for what he has done.

unsure if pettigoe was a nod to Kelly's heroes but I devoured this as an audiobook.

a great second novel

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