The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small

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From multi-award-winning author and film director Neil Jordan comes a thrilling reimagining of a turning point in Irish, American and European history. 'A masterwork from one of the most inventive artists of our day' John Banville 'A writer of uncommon talent, particularly around pacing and visual description' Irish Times 'An expertly spun ballad defined by themes of belonging, illusion and, fundamentally, fidelity' RT Culture Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, 1781, during the American War of Independence. A runaway slave saves the life of a wounded young officer in the British army after a battle. The man he nurses is Lord Edward Fitzgerald, younger son of one of colonial Ireland's grandest families. The tale that unfolds is related by Tony Small, the slave who becomes Fitzgerald's manservant and friend. While details of Lord Edward's life are well documented, little is known of Tony Small. In this gripping narrative his character considers the ironies of empire, captivity and freedom, mapping Lord Edward's journey from being a loyal subject of the British Empire to becoming a leader of the disastrous 1798 rebellion. This is a thrilling reimagining of a turning point in Irish, American and European history. Beautifully written the rhythms are the rhythms of a revolutionary era it wears the weight of its research lightly, and the headlong pace never falters. The story embraces a rich cast of characters from the Carolinas to London and Dublin, from the ferment of Paine and Robespierre's revolutionary Paris to Tournai and Hamburg, returning to Ireland for its tragic, inevitable denouement. A masterwork from one of the most inventive artists of our day. This powerful new work of fiction brings Neil Jordan's inimitable storytelling ability to the drama of real events and a long-forgotten chapter in Ireland and Britain's history.

Reviews

A masterwork from one of the most inventive artists of our day -- John Banville
An expertly spun ballad defined by themes of belonging, illusion and, fundamentally, fidelity * RT Culture *
Jordan is a writer of uncommon talent, particularly around pacing and visual description * Irish Times *
The historical research is evident [and] as with his previous novels, Jordan creates an evocative sense of time and place... Although the book is an odyssey, tracking thousands of miles across the globe, the pace is leisurely * The Times *
Neil Jordan is one of Ireland's greatest, if ever-so-slightly unsung, novelists * Hot Press *
The historical facts are here, in this beautiful work, laid out like a Dublin street ballad with its verses and chorus and a short afterword, containing a chapter poignantly titled 'The Greatest of These' from Corinthians 13, and Jordan doesn't seek to reinvent these men, rather to enhance them * Sunday Independent *
This panoramic, painstakingly researched novel told through Small's voice is a convincing reconstruction of the way their lives interlocked despite origins in diametrically opposed worlds * Irish Independent *

Author Bio

Neil Jordan is an Irish film director, screenwriter and author. His first book, Night in Tunisia, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize (1979). He was awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature (1981), the Irish PEN Award (2004), and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award for Shade (2005) and Mistaken (2011), which also received the 2011 Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year. His films include Angel (1982), the Academy Award-winning The Crying Game (1992), Michael Collins (1996) and The Butcher Boy (1997).