On Canaan's Side Sampler

The opening chapter to Sebastian Barry's On Canaan's Side - his first novel since the Costa Award-winning Secret Scripture. It's published in August 2011, but you can get an early peek at the opening chapter here.

From the bestselling Costa Prize-winning author of The Secret Scripture, On Canaan's Side is another heartbreaking novel spanning a lifetime.

‘As they used to say in Ireland, the devil only comes into good things.’

Narrated by Lilly Bere, On Canaan’s Side opens as she mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. The story then goes back to the moment she was forced to flee Sligo, at the end of the First World War, and follows her life through into the new world of America, a world filled with both hope and danger.

At once epic and intimate, Lilly’s narrative unfurls as she tries to make sense of the sorrows and troubles of her life and of the people whose lives she has touched. Spanning nearly seven decades, it is a novel of memory, war, family-ties and love, which once again displays Sebastian Barry’s exquisite prose and gift for storytelling.

Click here to download the first chapter

Published on 4th August 2011 in the following editions:

Hardback / 9780571226535 / £16.99
Limited Edition / 9780571276257 / £150
Export / 9780571273638 / £12.99
Ebook / 9780571274703 / £14.99