Turlough by Brian Keenan

Turlough by Brian Keenan

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Summary

Turlough O'Carolan - the legendary blind Irish harper of the 17th century - led a life driven by dreams and riven by contradictions. His story - narrated largely from his deathbed - is panoramic and picaresque, rich with the textures and smells of rural Ireland.

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Turlough by Brian Keenan

While held hostage by fundamentalist Shi'ite militiamen in the suburbs of Beirut, Brian Keenan was visited and sustained by the presence of Turlough O'Carolan - the legendary blind Irish harper of the seventeenth century. This novel is thus a re-creation of an extraordinary historical story and a personal debt repaid. It is also, obliquely, a parallel life - another life imprisoned, shaped by the dark. Narrated largely by O'Carolan from his death-bed, and through the recollections of those closest to him, TURLOUGH powerfully brings to life a lost Ireland of famine and disease, eviction and oppression, Stalking through the broken and dispossessed comes Turlough O'Carolan, the musical prodigy, blinded by smallpox and now an itinerant harper, lauded by the aristocracy and a hero to his people. His Rabelaisian desire for drink and women is counterpointed by his artistic struggle towards the great music and some kind of inner peace. Driven by demons and dreams, riven by contradictions, Turlough emerges as a great man, full of frailty- a blind man afraid of the dark.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780224061223
ISBN 10 0224061224
Title Turlough
Author Brian Keenan
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Year published 2000-09-28
Number of pages 352
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.