Journal Entry 1 by Cassiopaeia from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Description from Amazon
One of the most vivid and realised characters of recent fiction, Willie Dunne is the innocent hero of Sebastian Barry's highly acclaimed novel. Leaving Dublin to fight for the Allied cause as a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, he finds himself caught between the war playing out on foreign fields and that festering at home, waiting to erupt with the Easter Rising. Profoundly moving, intimate and epic, "A Long Long Way" charts and evokes a terrible coming of age, one too often written out of history.

This was a very special and surprise gift from Loey in Queensland, Australia. Sent through Amazon. 

Journal Entry 2 by Cassiopaeia from Cardiff, Wales United Kingdom on Sunday, November 08, 2009

This book was quite overwhelming, made even more so as I finished reading it on Remembrance Sunday morning. Barry’s writing is at once compassionate and lyrical, creating imagery of a haunting and enduring nature. The author explores the futile waste of human life and lets us glimpse the awakening conflict in the heart of young Private Willie Dunne.

Although I have read and loved The Sea by John Banville, A Long Long Way would have had my vote for the 2005 Booker Prize.