Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Country: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Country: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Country: A Novel
    Ebook296 pages5 hours

    Country: A Novel

    By Michael Hughes

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    Published to ravishing acclaim in the UK, a fierce and suspenseful reimagining of Homer’s Iliad set in mid-1990s Northern Ireland—a heart pounding tale of honor and revenge that “explodes with verbal invention, rapid juxtaposition, brutality and fun” (Times Literary Supplement).

    Northern Ireland, 1996.

    After twenty-five years of vicious conflict, the IRA and the British have agreed to an uneasy ceasefire as a first step towards lasting peace. But, faced with the prospect that decades of savage violence and loss have led only to smiles and handshakes, those on the ground in the border country question whether it really is time to pull back—or quite the opposite.

    When an IRA man’s wife turns informer, he and his brother gather their comrades for an assault on the local army base. But old grudges boil over, and the squad's feared sniper, Achill, refuses to risk his life to defend another man’s pride. As the gang plots without him, the British SAS are sent to crush the rogue terror cell before it can wreck the fragile truce and drag the region back to the darkest days of the Troubles. Meanwhile, Achill’s young protégé grabs his chance to join the fray in his place…

    Inspired by the oldest war story of them all, Michael Hughes’s virtuoso novel explores the brutal glory of armed conflict, the cost of Ireland’s most uncivil war, and the bitter tragedy of those on both sides who offer their lives to defend the dream of country.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 1, 2019
    ISBN9780062940315
    Author

    Michael Hughes

    Michael Hughes grew up in a small town in Northern Ireland. A graduate of Oxford, he also trained in theatre at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris. He has worked for many years as an actor under the professional name Michael Colgan, and he also teaches creative writing. He lives in London with his wife, the acclaimed historian Tiffany Watt Smith, and their two children. His first novel, The Countenance Divine, was published by John Murray/Hachette UK in 2016.

    Read more from Michael Hughes

    Related to Country

    Related ebooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Reviews for Country

    4.5/5

    32 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      ** I received a copy of Country as a courtesy of the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review of the novel. **This was a great read! The prose was lovely, the imagery sparing no details, and this is certainly not a children’s tale of the conflict between the IRA and the Brits. Hughes did an excellent job of humanizing the characters while retaining their individual flaws and, for some, their unlikable personalities. Would definitely recommend!
    • 5/5
      Fury. Pure fury. The blood was up. Lost the head completely.~from Country by Michael HughesHughes begins his story in the middle of a conflict between two members of an rogue IRA terrorist cell group.Achill and Pig, the 'trigger man' who killed eight Brits and the Officer Commander of a terrorist cell, clash over a girl whose father wants her back home. She had willingly come to Achill and he won't give her up. Pig insists the teenager will return to her da.Achill capitulates but throws in the towel. He knows it is his reputation that keep the Brits scared. Let them see what happens without him. He was done. He was going home.And that was the start of it. A terrible business altogether...Wait now till you hear the rest.~from Country by Michael HughesA tenuous truce has brought temporary peace, but the cell group won't give up the fight. This time, they are sure they have the upper hand with inside information about British plans. Independence is theirs, if they have the heart for it.The tale is violent, gritty, filled with passion and tears. It is an engrossing read, a timeless and compelling story.I was attracted to the novel as a retelling of The Iliad, Homer's story of the falling out between Achilles and King Agamemnon during the Trojan War. It's been a very long time since I last read Homer. The plotline and themes are there to be found, but readers will enjoy this novel if you don't know Homer.Hughes novel has the feel of the epic in the narrative voice, the high passions, the rhythm of the language.I won an ARC from LibraryThing a year ago. After it didn't arrive, I contacted the publisher in the fall and they sent me the published edition.It was worth waiting for.
    • 4/5
      Where was this book when I was in school? Homer & I had a rocky relationship & by the time I graduated, we were barely on speaking terms. With this retelling of The Iliad, Michael Hughes takes the legendary poets’s themes & characters & plunks them down in 1996 Northern Ireland, just after the signing of the peace accord. Like many great tales, it all begins with a woman. Nellie is a young Catholic who is part of a new generation. Tired of grinding poverty & endless violence, they yearn for a life beyond “the Troubles”. So when she’s offered money to inform on her IRA husband & his crew, she sees it as her ticket to a new life in London & grabs it with both hands. Think of her as a modern Helen which means her husband Brian Campbell is this version’s Menelaus. Brian is part of a group led by his brother Shane (think Agamemnon) & follows him with unquestioning loyalty. So when they learn Nell is a tout, they vow to blow up a nearby English army post in retaliation. It’s not just what they do, it’s a matter of family pride. But they’ll need the help of sniper Liam “Achill” O’Brien to guarantee success (no points for recognizing him as our Achilles). Liam is more than a competent marksman. He’s a legend in these parts & the mere whisper of his name is the stuff of nightmares for English soldiers. He’s been picking them off for years & truth be told, he’s getting a little tired of the whole damn mess. If the peace accord holds, he’ll be out of a job & lately he’s been thinking of returning home to the island of Achill. Now he’s being asked to continue the slaughter just to salvage a man’s pride. In alternate chapters we’re introduced to Henry, an aging English combat veteran who has no time for the hopeful blather being spewed by politicians. He embodies Homer’s Hector, a soldier addicted to the glory of war at the expense of everyone else in his life. HIs days on active duty are numbered & taking out Liam would guarantee his legacy. And so the stage is set. It’s inevitable there will be a mighty clash between these characters & many others. The contemporary setting makes this powerful story more relatable & N. Ireland in particular is the perfect location to explore Homer’s classic themes of honour, pride, fate, loyalty & mortality. Instead of dealing with the big picture, the author uses a small band of characters to represent the brutal effect of decades of war. This narrow focus personalizes the Troubles, helping us understand how they’ve inherited so much bitterness & hatred. It’s clear from the start we’re in for a bloody ending but much of the book is more dialogue than action. It’s written in Irish vernacular & although I found this difficult to understand at times (my failing, not the author’s) it lends authenticity to the narrative. It’s written as if someone is telling you a story while you share a pint, a story about people who can’t escape their circumstances or even imagine a different life. For them fighting is like breathing & as in the original tale, there are few winners here. It’s an engrossing read & I can’t help but think if I’d had this version while in school I’d have got a better grade.
    • 5/5
      Country is a retelling of Homer's Illiad set on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland during the 1990s. The IRA are the Greeks and the British army are the Trojans. It's a fairly close copy of the original despite the differences in time and setting. I read The Silence of the Women a few months ago which tells the same story but from the POV of Briseis and the other women involved in the Trojan War. I enjoyed this book much more than that one; the Trojan War is ultimately a war between men, and Briseis was a minor character. Framing the story from the POV of the women didn't work for me, at least in that book. However, Country is marvelous. It's gritty and crude and grim, everything you want to read about from Homer's war story but without the gods (which I didn't miss honestly). It's kind of sad how well a war story centuries old still fits in our current world. The uselessness of this fighting is a theme throughout the book. I also thought, apologies to Ms. Barker, that this book did a better job of explaining the role of women in war. Their helplessness, even Nellie's (Helen), was another theme that Mr. Hughes pursued successfully. I heartily recommend this book. It's an excellent read regardless of the reader's interest in Greek epics.
    • 5/5
      Even though the story is supposed to be a retelling of the Illiad, I tried not to overthink the story and rate it on it's own merits. And the tale doesn't disappoint. The story is thrilling, and kept my interest, up till the very end.
    • 4/5
      My only disappointment was that this book was over all too soon. Set in 1996, near the end of Ireland's Troubles, _Country_ follows a squad of men in the Provisional IRA, in the North of Ireland. Told from the perspectives of different people in and associated with the squad, the book provides a gripping window into the flavor of the time and place.
    • 5/5
      Bloody brilliant. A retelling of The Iliad set amid the conflict in Northern Ireland. Gritty, violent, and pure poetry.
    • 5/5
      ** I received a copy of Country as a courtesy of the publisher. This has not affected my rating or review of the novel. **This was a great read! The prose was lovely, the imagery sparing no details, and this is certainly not a children’s tale of the conflict between the IRA and the Brits. Hughes did an excellent job of humanizing the characters while retaining their individual flaws and, for some, their unlikable personalities. Would definitely recommend!