Overview

From best-selling author Joseph O'Connor comes a gripping and atmospheric World War II literary thriller set in occupied Rome. A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 WALTER SCOTT PRIZE Inspired by the true story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, who, together with his accomplices, risked his life to smuggle thousands out of occupied Rome right under the nose of his Nazi nemesis, My Father's House is a ""potent blend of excitement, suspense and intrigue"" (The Washington Post). September 1943: German forces have Rome under their control. Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann rules over the Eternal City with vicious efficiency. Hunger is widespread. Rumors fester. The war's outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, Jews, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, a neutral, independent state nestled in the city of Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is drawn into deadly battle of wits as they attempt to aid those seeking refuge.Suspenseful and beautifully written, My Father's House tells an unforgettable story of love, faith, sacrifice, and courage.

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9781609458355

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Praise for My Father's House O'Connor is a masterful storyteller, weaving a violent, terrifying, suspenseful, yet ultimately uplifting story of one man's courage and determination to fight back against Nazi brutality, whatever the risk. Superb! --Booklist (Starred Review) Riveting... A storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction. --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) If the story were told in typical thriller style, emphasizing action over language, it would still be good, but O'Connor's phrasings are a special joy... A deeply emotional read. --Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) My Father's House is primarily--and triumphantly--an intimate drama that illuminates both the fragility and the wonder of unlikely human connections forged in adversity and, in some cases, enduring for a lifetime. --Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal The diverse ventriloquism of O'Connor's novel evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality. --Financial Times (UK) Praise for Shadowplay A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition. --The New York Times Book Review O'Connor's magnificent novel does even more than fly, it soars. --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Subtly drawn and intensely affecting...Recalls, in its effortless grace, those 19th-century novels that made readers of us all. --The Wall Street Journal An engrossing story wonderfully well served by superb narration. --Minneapolis Star Tribune An absolutely magnificent book. It's not just a portrait of Bram Stoker, but a novel of the here and now. This is one of the best books of the year, anywhere. --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin Intensely atmospheric...As a romp through Ripper-ravaged London, Shadowplay is mightily entertaining. But as a meditation on hidden sexuality, it is powerful and poignant. --The Literary Review There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O'Connor is a wonder, and Shadowplay is a triumph. --Peter Carey, author of Parrot and Olivier in America A marvelous novel...Magnificent. --Suzie Feay, Financial Times A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition set in the garish heyday of a theater presided over by a tyrannical Irving and an exquisitely vulgar Ellen Terry, Britain's answer to Sarah Bernhardt. --Miranda Seymour, The New York Times Book Review An affectionate, tender story about everyday heroism, secret selves, and triumphs and tragedies on stage and in life and the many kinds of love that bind us together. --Library Journal (Starred Review) Shadowplay blows the dust off its Victorian trappings and brings them to scintillating life. --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) A gorgeous, gorgeous book . . . A thing of great beauty. --Ryan Tubridy, RTE Radio Shadowplay totally swept me away . . . It's a bit like Moulin Rouge meets Dracula. I absolutely loved it. --Oliver Callan, Irish Examiner O'Connor is one of the best writers working today. --Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

"""A potent blend of excitement, suspense and intrigue... A gripping World War II-set drama featuring the unlikeliest of heroes, one whom the reader roots for every step of the way... hugely satisfying.""--Malcom Forbes, Washington Post ""My Father's House is primarily--and triumphantly--an intimate drama that illuminates both the fragility and the wonder of unlikely human connections forged in adversity and, in some cases, enduring for a lifetime.""--Anna Mundow, Wall Street Journal ★ ""O'Connor is a masterful storyteller, weaving a violent, terrifying, suspenseful, yet ultimately uplifting story of one man's courage and determination to fight back against Nazi brutality, whatever the risk. Superb!""--Booklist (Starred Review) ★ ""Riveting... A storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction.""--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) ★ ""If the story were told in typical thriller style, emphasizing action over language, it would still be good, but O'Connor's phrasings are a special joy... A deeply emotional read.""--Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) ""A riveting tale about the power of community in the face of unfathomable evil... A seamless blend of fact and fiction by a master of the genre; a brisk, polyphonic narrative that brings the heroism of ordinary people thrillingly to life.""--Irish Times ""The diverse ventriloquism of O'Connor's novel evokes a city in peril with wonderful vitality.""--Financial Times (UK) ""The novel's evocative scene-setting, its propulsive narration and its powerful depiction of bravery and unity in extremis, all make for an engrossing read.""--The Telegraph (UK) ""A spectacular, thrilling novel... the novel offers much more than tensely plotted thrills. O'Flaherty's deep and impressively detailed love of Rome is emphasised and handsomely conveyed by O'Connor, who shares his responsiveness to its majestic and crumbled splendours... My Father's House celebrates triumphant against-the-odds camaraderie. It would require a present-day Puccini to do operatic justice to its tremendous tale.""--The Sunday Times (UK) ""O'Connor's imagining of the characters' thoughts helps bring them to life, but he also allows himself to tradeon what happened while improving it as suits his dramatic purposes. This remains a tale worth re-telling, adorned as it is by the brilliants of O'Connor's impressionistic writing.""--The Times (UK), A Best New Thriller for January 2023 ""There have been many books written and films made about Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the Kerry-born Vatican priest who rescued thousands of Jews and Allied Prisoners of War during the Second World War. But his latest incarnation, as the hero of this fast-moving novel by Joseph O'Connor, is surely the most memorable... A novel that triumphantly recreates the extraordinary human being that was Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and his colourful co-conspirators.""--Irish Examiner ""Superb.""--Irish Independent"

Praise for My Father's House Riveting... A storytelling tour de force. This is top-drawer WWII fiction. --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) If the story were told in typical thriller style, emphasizing action over language, it would still be good, but O'Connor's phrasings are a special joy... A deeply emotional read. --Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review) Praise for Shadowplay A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition. --The New York Times Book Review O'Connor's magnificent novel does even more than fly, it soars. --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Subtly drawn and intensely affecting...Recalls, in its effortless grace, those 19th-century novels that made readers of us all. --The Wall Street Journal An engrossing story wonderfully well served by superb narration. --Minneapolis Star Tribune An absolutely magnificent book. It's not just a portrait of Bram Stoker, but a novel of the here and now. This is one of the best books of the year, anywhere. --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin Intensely atmospheric...As a romp through Ripper-ravaged London, Shadowplay is mightily entertaining. But as a meditation on hidden sexuality, it is powerful and poignant. --The Literary Review There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O'Connor is a wonder, and Shadowplay is a triumph. --Peter Carey, author of Parrot and Olivier in America A marvelous novel...Magnificent. --Suzie Feay, Financial Times A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition set in the garish heyday of a theater presided over by a tyrannical Irving and an exquisitely vulgar Ellen Terry, Britain's answer to Sarah Bernhardt. --Miranda Seymour, The New York Times Book Review An affectionate, tender story about everyday heroism, secret selves, and triumphs and tragedies on stage and in life and the many kinds of love that bind us together. --Library Journal (Starred Review) Shadowplay blows the dust off its Victorian trappings and brings them to scintillating life. --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) A gorgeous, gorgeous book . . . A thing of great beauty. --Ryan Tubridy, RTE Radio Shadowplay totally swept me away . . . It's a bit like Moulin Rouge meets Dracula. I absolutely loved it. --Oliver Callan, Irish Examiner O'Connor is one of the best writers working today. --Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

Praise for Joseph O'Connor's SHADOWPLAY A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition. --The New York Times Book Review O'Connor's magnificent novel does even more than fly, it soars. --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Subtly drawn and intensely affecting...Recalls, in its effortless grace, those 19th-century novels that made readers of us all. --The Wall Street Journal An engrossing story wonderfully well served by superb narration. --Minneapolis Star Tribune An absolutely magnificent book. It's not just a portrait of Bram Stoker, but a novel of the here and now. This is one of the best books of the year, anywhere. --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin Intensely atmospheric...As a romp through Ripper-ravaged London, Shadowplay is mightily entertaining. But as a meditation on hidden sexuality, it is powerful and poignant. --The Literary Review There are few living writers who can take us back in time so assuredly, with such sensual density, through such gorgeous sentences. Joseph O'Connor is a wonder, and Shadowplay is a triumph. --Peter Carey, author of Parrot and Olivier in America A marvelous novel...Magnificent. --Suzie Feay, Financial Times Shadowplay is rich, dense and beautifully written. --Brendan Coyle, star of Downton Abbey in The Chicago Tribune A vibrantly imaginative narrative of passion, intrigue and literary ambition set in the garish heyday of a theater presided over by a tyrannical Irving and an exquisitely vulgar Ellen Terry, Britain's answer to Sarah Bernhardt. --Miranda Seymour, The New York Times Book Review An affectionate, tender story about everyday heroism, secret selves, and triumphs and tragedies on stage and in life and the many kinds of love that bind us together. --Library Journal (Starred Review) Shadowplay blows the dust off its Victorian trappings and brings them to scintillating life. --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) A gorgeous, gorgeous book . . . A thing of great beauty. --Ryan Tubridy, RTE Radio Shadowplay totally swept me away . . . It's a bit like Moulin Rouge meets Dracula. I absolutely loved it. --Oliver Callan, Irish Examiner O'Connor is one of the best writers working today. --Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple A book-within-a-book of the highest caliber, it treads the boards from the dazzling spectacle of Shakespeare to the quiet desperation of everyday life. It's also occasionally, as befits a story of Dracula's creator, creepingly spooky... Shadowplay made me laugh, weep, and most importantly, begat a sense of intimately knowing its real-life muses: Abraham Stoker, Ellen Terry, and and Henry Irving. --Amanda Qassar, Warwick's, La Jolla, CA Well, this was just magnificent. I could read this book on a loop. Bram Stoker, theatre and actors, ghosts, and such vivid language, the perfect heady mix for a perfect historical novel. --Anton Bogomazov, Politics & Prose, Washington, DC If Joseph O'Connor was inspired by the theory that Bram Stoker based Dracula on his boss Henry Irving, then it's a delightful surprise that SHADOWPLAY became something even richer and stranger. Filled with eye-popping set pieces (Irving leaping into the audience as a rabid Hamlet, a bonkers cameo by black-teethed Oscar Wilde) and absurdly delicious dialogue, SHADOWPLAY succeeds far beyond its original premise. It plays perfectly to the cheap seats and boxes, raising from Stoker's frustrated life a host of themes: literary ambition, gothic horror, gender fluidity, Irishness, and the always-more-interesting drama occurring backstage. --Steve Iwanski, Charter Books, Rhode Island A wonderful read filled with one-line quips that are priceless. Interesting history for those of us who are unfamiliar with Victorian theater as well as a superbly written novel. --Laura Parsons, Island Bound Bookstore, Block Island, RI

Author Information

Joseph O'Connor's Shadowplay was named Novel of the Year at the 2019 Irish Book Awards and was a finalist for the prestigious Costa Book Award. His novel Star of the Sea was published in thirty-eight languages and won France's Prix Millepages, Italy's Premio Acerbi, the Irish Post Award for Fiction, the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, an American Library Association Award, the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Hall of Fame Award, and the Prix Litteraire Zepter for European Novel of the Year. He is the author of nine novels and is the Inaugural Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

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