APoS-Derry
Derry, Northern Ireland, 1966
Partitioned from Ireland since 1921 and dominated by Protestants, the Catholic minority has grown weary of the casual discrimination against it and begun a push for equal rights. One- man-one-vote. Decent housing. Good jobs. The most basic of requests. Yet these are still too much to accept, for those in power. Protests, confrontations and demonstrations erupt, growing more and more dangerous and violent.
Caught in the middle of it all is Brendan Kinsella, a Catholic boy who is thought of as ... odd. The third of six children, he is quiet and observant, with an innate wariness and skepticism, and prefers to go his own way, even though that leads him into trouble, on occasion.
The story begins with the murder of his father just days after Brendan's tenth birthday. He is not sorry the man is dead; he was a vicious drunk who kept the family in extreme poverty. However, the man was killed by a pair of Protestants, which made him a martyr to Ireland and set Brendan’s mother, Bernadette, on an expanding path to Irish Nationalism. And she is dragging his older brother, Eamonn, with her.
Brendan, however, is reluctant to fall in line. So Bernadette constantly berates him as simple-minded, despite his knack for repairing just about anything, and seems unwilling to accept he just wants to live his own life.
Despite his efforts to remain apart from the growing turmoil, Brendan gets caught up in the countless civil rights demonstrations in Derry; the Battle of Bogside, where Catholics forced the Protestant Police Force out of their neighborhood; the arrival of British troops to separate the warring factions; internment without trial; and Bloody Sunday, when Paratroopers massacred Catholic marchers.
Mingled into this is Brendan’s budding relationship with Joanna, a Protestant girl from a well-off family. A relationship that must be kept secret to prevent any reprisals. She is pretty, fun to be around, has a life of relative ease, and is certain she is bound for university. She helps him see there is more to this world than hate and distrust, that his hopes, wishes and dreams could become reality, and they might still find a place of safety, even as their world careens into chaos.
APoS-NWFO
1973, Houston
Seriously injured by a horrific bombing, Brendan is caught in an Akinetic Catatonia, where he is barely aware of what is going on around him. The Provisional IRA wants him dead because they think he tried to warn the targets of the bombing. The British Army believes he helped set the bomb and wants to interrogate him.
But a scribbled note he left for his mother, the UK passport he had just received, a job offer on a ship in Cobh, and the train ticket he had purchased, one-way to Dublin, all suggest he’d left town prior to the explosion. So that is the story all parties settle on.
In truth, while his wounds were being tended to, it was discovered he was born with a heart condition that needs attention. So he was snuck into the US using the name Brennan McGabbhinn, a distant cousin who died as a child, under a medical visa.
Kept hidden in an attic room in Houston, Texas, Brendan slowly mended out of sight of everyone except his Aunt Mari, Uncle Sean, and cousins -- Scott, Brandi, and Bernadette. But while Brendan’s body may be healing, his mind is still torn by horrific memories of that day; the understanding that Joanna, the girl he loved more than anything, is dead; that his family’s still caught in the brutality of The Troubles; and that he is not allowed to contact them.
In an attempt to regain his center he starts to repair items for the neighborhood help – irons, toasters, lawn mowers and the like. He also develops tentative friendships with Everett, a graphic artist, and Jeremy, a high school friend of Scott’s. And while he is not fond of the extreme heat and humidity of a Houston summer; he begins to believe he has found a place of safety in a city of wealth and promise.
But soon he comes to realize that appearances can be deceiving...and promises are not always kept.
APoS-HNH
Derry 1981
Brendan is called home to see his mother before she dies of cancer. Using the chaos of the hunger strikes, he sneaks into Derry despite knowing the British forces still want to interrogate him over the bombing that injured him.
Now he must navigate the anger growing around him, even as he discovers he's been lied to about Joanna, learns his father may have been far more than a simple drunken brute, finds his youngest brother, Kieran, hates him, and he is caught in a very casual betrayal that could easily kill him.
Yet in the face of the growing turmoil and exploding violence he continues to fight to determine the direction of his life.
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