The Road to Nowhere

by Maurice Walsh

"The Road to Nowhere" by Maurice Walsh. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

285 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Maurice Walsh was an Irish novelist best known for the short story The Quiet Man which was later made into an Oscar-winning movie directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. Walsh was born in 1879 in Ballydonoghue near Listowel, Co. Kerry, Ireland. He was one of Ireland's best-selling authors in the 1930s.

Reviews

[Tweety · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rogan Stuart is alive but he feels like a dead man. When by accident he meets up with Paddy Joe Long from While Rivers Run, and embroils him in a night of poaching gone wrong, Paddy packs him off to a tinker friend Jamesy Coffey. There top get his soul back, and maybe get revenge on The Black Captain for changing his world forever..


Maurice Walsh has done it again, somehow his books don't need to have much story or plot top keep me reading. His books are slice-of-life, with romance thrown in, but it's not really about the romance, rather about the characters finding happiness. Walsh seems to like his sad heroes, and strong, loyal women. He also likes fighting a bit much, like Jeffrey Farnol, however he doesn't describe the fight blow by blow. Language is usually mild, this one has a few too many "Mother of God" expletives and the like.

[Hjwoodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maurice Walsh has been one of my Guilty Pleasures my whole life long. Nothing much happens in his books. They are set in either Scotland or Ireland and usually all that happens is a man walks over the hills, poaches a salmon or so, has a fight and possibly falls for a redhaired woman. And that's basically all his plots. But of course I can't resist reading one every now and then, just as one might devour a doughnut or two, all the while knowing you oughtn't to really. This begins where Rogan Stuart, a former international rugby player, is walking moodily through Ireland. He comes across two men camping in the hills, accompanies them on a poaching trip which goes slightly wrong, and then joins a family of travellers for a while. I really love the slow descriptions, in fact I so enjoyed the whole uneventful easy pace of this book that this is probably the sixth time I've read it.

[Frank Daub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deepest into the Irish of love and life

Another intuitive and passionate story of Irish values and mystical Irish ways of living, fighting and loving. Wonderfully drawn and animated characters, dangers in the plot and good movement through events to the sensible but realistic conclusion. Reminds me of Plunket and a newer Irish writer who tells traditional Irish life stories -- Jean Reinhardt.

[Thomas A · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading Maurice Walsh, and this is no exception, even though it’s not his best. A heartwarming and enjoyable story, but gets a bit convoluted in places and can be hard to follow - at least for this American reader. It may be a cultural disconnect on my part however, not knowing the Irish culture and way of speaking very well. Regardless I highly recommend.

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical Irish tale of misadventure, romance, and protecting a woman from a typical Walsh fiend. This one includes life on the road with Irish gypsies, and again, some well turned fight phrases. Great characters, some twists and turns, and everybody gets along with a few exceptions.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

In these dark days, I find a need to read books that are light-hearted. Maurice Walsh was a favourite of my mother's, and I read those of his books which she had in my distant youth. This book was new to me and it made good holiday reading.

[Raluca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story isn't much in itself but I fell in love with the writing, the talk and the characters. Walsh reminds me of Romanian writers I read in my childhood that could rewrite the world with the tip of their pens and any story told by them seemed to have been going around since forever. I'm glad I adopted this book when I saw it lying on the book exchange table, conspicuous among the newly printed stories, it drew me to it. The road to nowhere can take you where you need to be if you let it.