Irish American

"Continued brilliance. The characters will make you laugh and cry and fume while you're reading. Comic Irish writing at its best." Colin Quinn Desperate mother of seven, Fionnuala Flood, thinks her new get-rich-quick scheme will pay the bills, but instead it threatens to tear her family apart. The case of canned vegetables she bought contains not spuds but explosives, and a defunct IRA branch will stop at nothing to get them back. Meanwhile, her two oldest sons are in prison, her husband's hands are fondling more than frozen fish at work, and her lesbian daughter has published a tell-all ...

When hunter Allan Quatermain invited his old friends over to shoot grouse they started relating stories and anecdotes of their time in Africa. Allan draws his friends in with a tale encompassing a beautiful African warrior princess, the hand of a murdered babe, a treasure and a war. FNH Audio presents an unabridged reading of H. Rider Haggard’s tale of action and adventure in darkest Africa.

The energetic, pretentious and sometimes malicious Lucia's reign over Riseholme's gentry is challenged by a dazzling diva, a fraudulent guru and the exposur eof her faulty Italian.

After her beloved grandmother Rozenn’s death, Morane is heartbroken to learn that her sister is the sole inheritor of the family home in Cornwall - while she herself has been written out of the will. With both her business and her relationship with her sister on the rocks, Morane becomes consumed by one question: what made Rozenn turn her back on her? When she finds an old letter linking her grandmother to Brittany under German occupation, Morane escapes on the trail of her family’s past. In the coastal village where Rozenn lived in 1941, she uncovers a web of shameful secrets.

On Midsummer’s Eve, Dan and Una enact A Midsummer Night’s Dream three times over - right under Pook’s Hill. That is how they meet Puck, “the oldest Old Thing in England” and the last of the People of the Hills. Through Puck, they are introduced to the nearly forgotten pages of old England’s history and to characters that can illuminate their own historical predicaments. Originally published in 1906, these 10 stories and accompanying poems were intended for both adults and children.

1943: Europe is at war - but neutral Ireland is isolated from the storm. In a sleepy coastal village south of Dublin, eighteen-year-old Aileen Sweeney meets soldier Niall O’Rourke at a dance, and the spark between them soon ignites a powerful love. But when Niall makes a life-changing and contentious decision, Aileen’s hopes and dreams fall apart. In an instant Niall is transformed from dashing suitor to social outcast, and the fallout leaves each of them navigating the consequences alone. Putting her innocence behind her, Aileen must make her own tough choices.

When her father remarries, the honest, innocent Molly Gibson suddenly finds herself with a new stepsister, Cynthia, who is beautiful, worldly and impetuous. This would be more than enough to deal with, but the new wife is the deeply snobbish (and darkly secretive) Hyacinth. Thwarted love, scheming ambition and small-town gossip underlie the warmth, irony and brilliant social observation which link the relationships and the inevitable conflicts as profound change comes to rural England.

The son of a notorious outlaw is adopted into a wealthy, law-abiding family as an infant after his father is killed in an attempted robbery. Will he follow in the footsteps of his outlaw father, or will his life be guided by the respectable woman who nurtured him to manhood?

"The Old English Baron" is an early Gothic novel by Clara Reeve. The story follows the adventures of Sir Philip Harclay, who returns to medieval England to find that Arthur Lord Lovel, the friend of his youth, is dead. His cousin Walter Lord Lovel had succeeded to the estate, and sold the family castle to the baron, Fitz-Owen. Among the baron's household were his two sons and daughter Emma, several young gentlemen relations being educated with the sons, and Edmund Twyford, the son of a peasant, who had been brought to live with them.

When Charlotte McKay wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there, all she wants is to go back to the perfect London flat she shares with her husband, and the impressive career she’s worked so hard to build. But something’s not right. Her husband David is at her bedside - but so is a three-year-old girl, and she’s calling Charlotte "Mummy"....

Jake Scarne has retired. But he has mixed feelings about it. He suspects that there is more to life than golf outings and sojourns down the Jersey Shore. Little does he know that some of his old skills will come in handy when the Staten Island Ferry he is on is hijacked! The hijackers claim they are terrorists. But their real motives are more venal. Scarne avails himself of possibly the most unusual ally he's ever had. But there is death and tragedy in this twisty tale that reminds some critics of two classic movies: DIE HARD and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE-TWO-THREE. “IF YOU LIKE HARD-...

It has been four years since the Civil War ended, and westward expansion seems imminent. Thirsty for adventure, Patrick Mulligan, a young Irish immigrant, learns of gold being discovered in Colorado Territory, so he moves his family from Pennsylvania farmland to the wilderness. Gold lust lures him to the small town of Breckenridge, where he befriends several Irish immigrants and miners. One man in particular, Silas Garvey, strikes Patrick’s fancy and the two become fast friends. But Silas has a dark secret, and is doomed due to chronic illness. Although Patrick adores the old man, he ...

In this first book of "The Forsyte Saga", Galsworthy paints a vivid portrait of a wealthy and ambitious London family at the turn of the century. Interwoven with this is the ill-fated romance of Irene and Bossiny.

Lucy Hall arrives in the Seychelles determined to leave her worries behind. The tropical paradise looks sun-soaked and picture-perfect - but as Lucy soon discovers, appearances can be very deceptive. A deadly secret lurks in the island's history, buried deep but not forgotten. And it is about to come to light. As black clouds begin to gather over what promised to be a relaxing family break, Lucy realises that her father stands in the eye of the coming storm.

Shakespeare is regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's best dramatist. His plays have been translated into every major language, and are the most performed ever. His work contains stunningly modern insight, witty jokes and soaring passion; it is an endless source of amazement and inspiration. Romeo and Juliet is perhaps his most famous and beloved; this heartbreaking tale of impossible love has marked every generation since its publication, and it is an essential part of Western culture.

The follow up to best-selling audio Three Men in a Boat, Three Men on the Bummel features delightful, gentle, comic writing. First published in 1900, the story revives the three companions from Three Men in a Boat, this time taking them on a bicycle tour through the German Black Forest. Written during the Victorian era bicycle-craze, it is a light-hearted commentary on German culture at the time, told through the eyes of the hapless British tourist.

Listed in the BBC's "100 Novels That Shaped Our World", Psmith, Journalist takes Wodehouse's immaculate hero to the apparently dull city of New York, where he takes command of twee family periodical Cosy Moments, converts it to the yellowest of yellow journals, and embarks upon a crusade to unmask the owner of the notorious Pleasant Street tenements. But soon the staff of Cosy Moments find themselves dodging ambushes and assassination attempts, as the mysterious tenement owner tries to put them out of business - permanently; and war breaks out among New York's notorious street gangs.

Conrad’s Lord Jim is the iconic story of a romantic young man and his struggle with guilt and self-loathing. The novel begins with Jim’s earlier life as a ship’s officer. He and the other crew members abandon an imperiled vessel and its passengers after a mysterious collision reveals a dangerous bulge below the water line. But the ship does not sink and Jim survives to face an official inquiry. He is stripped of his license and faces universal scorn and the reality of his own guilt.

"A weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares." This is how Marlowe describes his journey into the Belgian Congo. And while Europeans go mad, Corporations turn tyrannous, and the legend of a great Ivory hunter is dangled before him, Marlowe observes everything with a keen eye, as we journey with him, into the Heart of Darkness. This audiobook also includes another short story featuring Marlowe, "Youth".

La veille de Noël. Tous s'affairent aux préparatifs. Mais, préférant la solitude à ces fêtes joyeuses, Ebenezer Scrooge refuse les invitations.