In The Promise of Light by Paul Watkins, it is 1921, and young Ben Sheridan's Irish-American father mysteriously dies in their small Rhode Island town. Determined to learn the truth about his family's cloudy past, he sets sail for Ireland, and quickly becomes involved in a struggle between soldiers of the newly formed Irish Republican Army and the brutal British troops. Amidst the lush and rugged Irish countryside, and the horrible violence unfolding across it, Ben must search for the truth of his identity, and the ties of his family's blood.
"Watkins is a territic writer...His books are lucid, intelligent and shamelessly entertaining, written in lean, evocative prose and displaying an uncommon delight in storytelling."
Washington Post Book World
"A full-fashioned romantic...Watkins is aware of every burning cottage, every hedgerow ambush, every body thrown on the road - of the powerful emotional magic of that distance scene."
The New Yorker
"Superbly crafted...Myth and archetype are all over the place in The Promise of Light, as real as the craving for independence or the hills of Connemara."
