EBOOK

Acts of Allegiance

A Novel

Peter Cunningham
4
(1)
Pages
296
Year
2018
Language
English

About

For readers of The Goldfinch and classic le Carré, a propulsive tale of espionage, betrayal, loyalty, and love, set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Marty Ransom, son of the Captain and heir to a hilltop estate near Waterford in independent Ireland, lives a comfortable, boring life with his tennis-playing, Anglican wife, Sugar, and a job in the Department of External Affairs. Among their closest friends are an Anglo-Irish couple, a banker who was Sugar's childhood flame and his alluring diplomat wife, Alison. But Marty is a man divided. While his father fought with the British Army and found respectability in marriage, Marty's closest childhood friend was his cousin Iggy, the rebel son of a working-class Irish patriot whose gift for tinkering with radio parts has grown into a bomb maker's skill.

When Marty is lured into keeping tabs on the growing IRA activities in support of the Catholic North, he finds himself walking a tightrope of conflicting yearnings and loyalties, balancing between nations, lovers, and parts of his own past, never knowing whom he can trust. But after Bloody Sunday escalates the violence and the British mount a desperate operation to take out a notorious IRA bomber, he must choose, and risk putting everything he loves most-his wife and young son-as well as his own life, at risk.

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Reviews

"Remarkable. . . Readers are advised to pay close attention as Cunningham's beautiful, twisting story unfolds until arriving at its sad, shocking conclusion."
Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A wonderful brew of a book about politics, family, violence, love, betrayal—life, in other words. Peter Cunningham has written a winner."
John Banville
"Masterful . . . This is an intricately structured novel. It is also a timely novel . . . It's a sharp reminder of what evil can be done in the name of good."
Irish Times

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