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Historical Fiction · MelancholicAn English major inherits an Irish hotel that is falling apart in 1919
Troubles
1970446 pagesModerate readSteady pace
★ Booker Prize, 1970
A decaying Irish hotel during the War of Independence
Major Brendan Archer arrives at the Majestic Hotel in Kilnalough, Ireland, in 1919 to see the woman he believes is his fiancée. The hotel is slowly falling apart, while the troubles of the Irish War of Independence draw nearer. It is the first book in Farrell's Empire Trilogy.
More about this book
Who
Major Archer, the Majestic Hotel's owner Edward Spencer and his family.
World
Kilnalough, Ireland, in 1919, in and around a vast hotel.
What makes it different
It won the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010, a special award for books published in 1970, and it was adapted as a 1988 LWT film.
Feel
Darkly comic and wistful.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- TroublesWikipedia