Behrens, Peter

A collection of riveting stories full of ambition, heartache, and wisdom that have Peter Behrens an essential voice of our times.

Roman initiatique et récit des origines de l'Amérique. Irlande, 1846. L'épidémie de mildiou frappe les fermiers et lance le jeune Fergus sur les routes après le décès de toute sa famille. Au rythme des rencontres et des déconvenues, à mesure que ses proches disparaissent, Fergus apaise son désir de vengeance et émigre pour le Canada. Premier roman.

After witnessing the deaths of his family, Fergus O'Brien leaves Ireland in search of a new life.

"CARRY ME is told from the perspective of Billy, born to a German father and an Irish mother who are employees on the summer estate of the German-Jewish Baron von Weinbrenner on the scenic Isle of Wight. The book's brilliant narrative twines together the love story of Billy and Karin, the baron's free-spirited daughter, during several crucial months in 1938, and their childhood journey, separately and together, leading up to that 1938 moment when their fates hang in the balance. Billy's backstory takes us through England, Ireland, and Germany, where his family is deported as the political situation in 1930s Europe deteriorates. They find refuge at the Weinbrenners' beautiful home outside Frankfurt, where Billy's father becomes the horse trainer in the baron's famous stables, and the teenage Billy reconnects with the seductively devil-may-care Karin. The two ride horses and shoot bow and arrows in the woods, and share the beloved Winnetou novels of Karl May, whose sere West Texas landscape becomes a powerful beacon in their relationship when they reach young adulthood, suggesting a possible path to freedom as the Germany they once knew is deteriorating rapidly. Billy, with his British passport, schemes to get Karin out of the country, and the reader almost can't breathe, waiting for them to board a boat. Poetic, allusive, and profound, CARRY ME is the true story of Peter's father--brilliantly reimagined as a love story, a historical epic, and a powerful meditation on the vagaries of politics and the pull of family"--

"THE O'BRIENS follows the family from THE LAW OF DREAMS (Governor General's Literary Award-winner) two generations later: Joe O'Brien is coming of age in a new century in remote Pontiac County, Quebec, with his two brothers and two sisters by his side. After escaping the poverty of Pontiac, Joe travels the continent, building an empire and a bright young family with his wife, Iseult, but he is never quite able to leave his past behind. Told from the perspective of Joe, Iseult, and their children and spanning the construction of the Canadian railroad as well as both world wars, this is an epic of great heart, imagination and narrative force."--Publisher.