"...moving descriptions of Éire's [Ireland's] wayward sons and daughters yearning for a sense of belonging in the world." - Alexander Hackett, Montreal Review of Books
"If they ask, you can say we're wily micks who still refuse to be formed into anything other than what the spirits demand. Like the reshaped shoreline after the storm." -
Devin O'Sullivan has returned to his family's home on Grand Island, across from Kingston, Ontario, Canada, during the final days of the life of his great-grandfather, Michael. Struggling with a crisis in his political career, he is drawn to the tales of his family and quickly swept up by their present travails.
The Song of O'Sullivan's Chain explores the Irish experience in Canada by presenting a series of linked stories that propel us through generations of the O'Sullivan family. They struggle for freedom in Ireland and acceptance in Canada, tormented by political and personal traumas, which compels them to be leaders, artists and outlaws -- all searching for home.
