A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry

[Lindach]

I just love the writing of Sebastian Barry and this another of his novels shortlisted for the Booker Prize. This is the story of Willie Dunne, a young Dubliner, who volunteers for in the British army in 1915 to fight the Germans to protect his sisters and Ireland.
It is a deeply moving story and it is a largely untold one of the Irish who volunteered in the First World War as they believed that Britain would give them Home Rule as promised. These soldiers were slaughtered in their thousands on the fields of Flanders in the misguided belief that they were protecting Ireland and would get Home Rule after the War. As the war progressed and following the Easter Uprising they were regarded as traitors by some for fighting for Britain. A novel of conflicted emotions and well worth reading.