A Long Long Way

Summary: Willie Dunne is a gifted and bright boy, growing up in Dublin with his three younger sisters. His policeman father works under the British regime of the early 1900s and has plans for Willie to do the same, but Willie dreams of marrying his girlfriend and becoming a builder. WWI changes all that. Willie goes off to battle on the Western Front in 1915, and his life is never the same. We follow him there through the let...ters he writes home, and a diary he keeps. Willie must shoulder the unending internal damages of the war along with the hatred of his own countrymen for fighting for Britain. Sebastian Barry captures this brutal war and the life of Willie with masterful grace and lyrical skill. [read more]