Valiant Gentlemen, Sabina Murray
Valiant Gentlemen, Sabina Murray
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
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Valiant Gentlemen
A Novel

Author: Sabina Murray

Narrator: David Colacci

Unabridged: 20 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/01/2016

Synopsis

In prose that is darkly humorous and alive with detail, Valiant Gentlemen reimagines the lives and intimate friendships of humanitarian and Irish patriot Roger Casement; his closest friend, Herbert Ward; and Ward's extraordinary wife, the Argentinian-American heiress Sarita Sanford. Valiant Gentlemen takes the reader on an intimate journey, from Ward and Casement's misadventurous youth in the Congo—where, among other things, they bore witness to an Irish whiskey heir's taste for cannibalism—to Ward's marriage to Sarita and their flourishing family life in France, to Casement's covert homosexuality and enduring nomadic lifestyle floating between his work across the African continent and involvement in Irish politics. When World War I breaks out, Casement and Ward's longstanding political differences finally come to a head and when Ward and his teenage sons leave to fight on the frontlines for England, Casement begins to work alongside the Germans to help free Ireland from British rule. What results is tragic and riveting, as both men are forced to confront notions of love and betrayal in the face of the vastly different tracks their lives have taken.

About Sabina Murray

Sabina Murray grew up in Australia and the Philippines and is currently a member of the MFA faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of The Human Zoo, Tales of the New World, A Carnivore's Inquiry, Forgery, Valiant Gentlemen, and The Caprices, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Seth

Herbert Ward and Roger Casement meet in the 1880's, while working together as young men in the Belgian Congo. Ward is English, Casement is Irish, and they've both found their feet abroad after fleeing fractious family life at home. Though Ward is oblivious, Casement, a homosexual, is deeply smitten......more

Goodreads review by Chris

Contrary to last month’s review in the NYT Book Review, I preferred Mario Vargas Llosa’s Dream of the Celt from a few years ago to this new novel based on the life of Sir Roger Casement, a crusader against colonial exploitation and imperialism executed by the British (who once knighted him) in 1917......more

Goodreads review by Doug

Even though it took me an inordinate amount of time to read this (usually an indication I am NOT enjoying a book), I did find this both very well written and involving. My main quibble is that I was expecting a historical fictional biography focusing on Roger Casement, and this is more of a dual bio......more

Goodreads review by Olaf

2'5 ⭐️ Roger Casement is probably one of the most intriguing historical figures from around the turn of the last century. He represents the perrenial adventurous restless wanderer, traveling all over the world and leaving behind something remarkable wherever he went. Famous for his uncovering of the......more

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