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Life Sentences

The unforgettable Irish bestseller

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Life Sentences

Written by: Billy O'Callaghan
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle, Helen Lloyd, Anne Flosnik
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₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

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Buy Now for ₹546.23

Brought to you by Penguin.

*THE #3 IRISH BESTSELLER*

Three generations. More than a century of famine, war, violence and love.

At sixteen Nancy, the only member of her family to survive the Great Famine, leaves her small island for the mainland. Finding work in a grand house on the edge of Cork City, she feels irrepressibly drawn to the charismatic gardener Michael Egan, sparking a love affair that soon throws her into a fight for her life.

In 1920, Nancy's son Jer has lived through battles of his own as a soldier in the Great War. Now drunk in a jail cell, he struggles to piece together where he has come from, and who he wants to be.

And in the early 1980s, Jer's youngest child Nellie is nearing the end of her life in a council house, moments away from her childhood home; remembering the night when she and her family stole back something that was rightfully theirs, she imagines what lies in store for those who will survive her.

'Brilliantly immerses us in its respective time periods' SUNDAY TIMES
'Momentous and epic' BERNARD MACLAVERTY
'Superb and moving' JOHN BANVILLE
'A lovely, piercing book' SEBASTIAN BARRY

© Billy O'Callaghan 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Sagas Small Town & Rural World Literature
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Critic Reviews

Billy O'Callaghan's writing is so good and true it feels almost magical; Life Sentences is a beautiful book, a small epic, a joy. (Sadie Jones)
O'Callaghan is amongst the finest storytellers and wordsmiths in Ireland today. (Anne Griffin)
A beautiful novel. (Eithne Shortall)
The strength of Life Sentences lies in its long range but intimate style . . . A reader could profitably finish the book and go straight back to its beginning (John Self)
People who read Sebastian Barry, Donal Ryan, Liam O'Flaherty will really love [Life Sentences] . . . It's my book of the year so far. (Ryan Tubridy)
A lovely, piercing book. (Sebastian Barry)
Momentous and epic storytelling. (Bernard MacLaverty)
A superb and moving novel . . . O'Callaghan is one of our finest writers, in the tradition of John McGahern and Brian Friel, and this is his best work yet. (John Banville)
Life Sentences brilliantly immerses us in its respective time periods, and . . . O'Callaghan's natural gifts as a writer . . . the author often coming out with a stunning turn of phrase. (Barry Pierce)
Lyrical, poignant, gripping . . . O'Callaghan weaves together a narrative that is compelling and dazzlingly rendered. (James Moran)
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