Ireland

by Frank Delaney

In the winter of 1951, a storyteller arrives at the home of nine-year-old Ronan O'Mara in the Irish countryside. The last practitioner of an honored, centuries-old tradition, the Seanchai enthralls his assembled audience for three evenings running with narratives of foolish kings and fabled saints, of enduring accomplishments and selfless acts -- until he is banished from the household for blasphemy and moves on. But these three incomparable nights have changed young Ronan forever, setting him on the course he will follow for years to come -- as he pursues the elusive, itinerant storyteller . . . and the magical tales that are no less than the glorious saga of his tenacious, troubled, and extraordinary isle.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Ireland, Irish Literature, Historical, Audiobook, Travel

651 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 26, 2004

About the author

Frank Delaney was an author, a broadcaster on both television and radio, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, lecturer, and a judge of many literary prizes. Delaney interviewed more than 3,500 of the world's most important writers. NPR called him 'The Most Eloquent Man in the World'. Delaney was born and raised in County Tipperary, Ireland, spent more than twenty-five years in England before moving to the United States in 2002. He lived in Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, writer and marketer, Diane Meier.

Reviews

[Neptunem · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is as if Frank Delaney wrote his novel, Ireland, to be an audio book. Ireland is a novel about a Storyteller and the stories he tells about Irish history. We are treated to the creation of Newgrange and the Book of Kells. We learn about Brendan the Navigator and Conor, the King of Ulster. Each story stands alone but together they form still another story. I cannot recommend this book more highly…especially as an audio book.

[Bill Pardi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ireland, by Frank Delaney, is a compelling and in some ways remarkable book. When I found it I was looking for a history of Ireland. I didn't get that, or at least not exactly. This is a story of Ireland, told by examining the lives of several Irish individuals. The main theme of the book is that you can't really understand Ireland with just names, dates, and facts. To really understand the country and its people you must hear the stories behind the history, and the author does exactly that using some rather clever narrative devices throughout.

In the first act, we meet a young boy who is visited by a… wait for it… travelling storyteller with a penchant for walking around Ireland telling the stories that make up the history of his beloved country. In act two the boy is grown and, through a series of events sown together by a strange connection to the storyteller, finds himself walking the streets and countryside of Ireland hearing stories and telling a few of his own. In the third act the boy, now a man and notable historian in his own right, continues his pursuit of the storyteller and ends up finding himself in the process.

If all this sounds a bit contrived and superficial, it isn't. I don't want to spoil the story, but suffice it to say that Delaney weaves a rich, highly textured tapestry of characters and history that I couldn't put down. I hadn't read much of any Irish history before this book, but I've gained a new found respect and admiration for this tiny country and a people that have had an enormous impact on the world. Highly recommended.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for my book club and did not look forward to it. What a surprise! I was enchanted by the storyteller's tales. The novel has both a plot and a history of the stories told by a traditional storyteller in Ireland. Ireland has had a rich history of itinerant storytellers, and it was as if I were being read to rather than reading it myself. Frank Delaney's goal is to tell the history of Ireland during the course of his life's work. If any of his other books are anything like this one, I look forward to listening.

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Delaney has taken the legends of Ireland and the woven them together through charmingly written stories told by a wandering storyteller. The life of the storyteller becomes intertwined with one special boy who is entranced by both the stories and the teller of the stories.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Delaney"s Ireland reminds me of a caduceus, like the staff of the Greek god Hermes, with two intertwined serpents. One of the serpents is the story of a young man named Ronan O'Mara, son of a prosperous Irish attorney, who falls under the spell of the last of the traveling storytellers, known in Gaelic as a seanchai. The other thread (or serpent) is the story of Ireland itself, from prehistoric times at Newgrange to the Easter Rebellion of 1916 in Dublin.

In between Ronan's quest to meet up with the storyteller, we are regaled with a series of anecdotal episodes from Irish history, many heavily laden with mythical overtones. Not that it matters to me: I have always been interested in Irish history and realized from the outset that the mythical elements form a large part of it. I keep harking back to that line from John Ford's film (and was he not an Irishman?) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance: "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

I have always loved stories. Many of my favorite writers -- men like Nikolai Leskov, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Robert Louis Stevenson -- were great storytellers, who, like the Irish seanchai, belonged in a very special way to the land of their birth. In his essay on Leskov (reprinted in Illuminations), Walter Benjamin rues what has become of the story:

The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out. This, however, is a process that has been going on for a long time. And nothing would be more fatuous than to want to see in it merely a "symptom of decay," let alone a "modern" symptom. It is, rather, only a concomitant symptom of the secular productive forces of history, a concomitant that has quite gradually removed narrative from the realm of living speech and at the same time is making it possible to see a new beauty in what is vanishing.

Ireland is perhaps a bit behindhand in this secular process, as I recall from the good priests and nuns of my Catholic education, and that is a good thing for those of us who love a good tale. Allow me to end with the storyteller himself, on the last page of Ireland:

Conveniently for me, I liken Ireland to whiskey in a glass -- a cone of amber, a self-contained passage of time, a place apart, reaching out to the world with sometimes an an acrid taste, a definite excess of personality, telling her story to all who would listen, hauling them forward by the lapels of their coats until they hear, whether they want to or not. But always, always -- the story is the teller and the teller is the story.

This is the first of a score or more books I plan to read this year featuring those tales of Ireland -- tales told by historians, poets, and storytellers like Frank Delaney, a worthy practitioner of his craft.

[Marialyce · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just could not get into this book at all. I found the tales to be boring and the storytelling even worse. I have many Irish friends who are able to tell a tale in a most fun and witty way. They are never boring and with that true Irish wit and the glint in their eyes, they weave a story that amazes and thrills you. (or perhaps it is that wonderful accent and laugh they all seem to have naturally!) Frank Delaney, unfortunately, could not seem to muster up any enthusiasm in this reader. He made me dread going back to a book I knew or at least I thought I knew, I was going to love. What a big disappointment! Where was that Irish charm, those wonderful folktales, or even where was that pot of gold we always hope to find in the Irish rainbow's end? Sadly, this was definitely missing in this book.

I made it halfway and even had my husband read it (He has a lot more Irish in him than I) and he could not even get past the first 100 pages.

So, sorry to say, this is my second book of the month that has gotten a "no can do" from me. I have to say this is a record for me...I have never quit two books in a row before. :(

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a gift from my dad, it is the story of a Irish boy whose life is changed by the visit of a storyteller at his familys home in the 50's. When the storyteller leaves town due to the frostyness and strait out bitch of a mother,the boy becomes obsessed with finding the Storyteller and learning all he can from him.

So this was moved to the top of the reading pile because the Irish boy's name was Ronan and my sons name is Ronan and he is my most favourite person ever.
This is my Ronan

He is a cheeky monkey but chances are he would not be too impressed by a travelling storyteller, nore would it alter his course in life, the course right now has a lot to do with getting out into space and taking pictures of planets with my cell phone,its not a great life course but he seems committed to it.

Anyway through out this story we get different tales of Ireland which were great (Brain Boru,St.Patrick,poetry)but this was 700 pages I just could not get what made book Ronan tick. Why the obsession with the stoyteller? Why so anti-social? No interest in girls or boys or religion? I just didn't get him.

There is a twist mid book which I did not see coming but was interesting and shed more light on the family situation. We have chapters and chapters on discussions with teachers, or towns people but then one paragraph to another we skip ahead like 3 or 5 years and are move on to somthing different with Ronan as he grows older, I felt the author at times did not give enough explanantion to Ronans inner thought or emotions it was a lot of "and then this happened"

If I stopped this book halfway through when the first twist was revealed I would have probably given this 4 or 5 stars because I really enjoyed it but the extra 400 pages rubbed me the wrong way.

[Minglu Jiang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, what a letdown. This should have been an easy slam-dunk for me. I mean, I love stories. This is a book about stories. I love history. The stories are about, well, you know, history. And I love all things Ireland, and with a title that's simply "IRELAND," well, it should've been really, really easy to impress me.

The beginning few chapters I loved. A traveling storyteller lodges at the O'Mara house, and the young son, Ronan, becomes fascinated with the stories that the Storyteller brings. I was, too. Those stories the Storyteller brought to the O'Mara house that night were truly immersive and breathtaking.

Ronan becomes obsessed with the Storyteller and dedicates his life to the search. Along the way, he collects stories the Storyteller told at other locations, as well as stories of Ireland told by other people—family histories, university lectures, etc. And here is where the book started to run out of steam.

When Ronan was a little boy, his obsession for the Storyteller was endearing. Okay, he's anti-social and self-centered, but he's nine years old, so we can cut him some slack.

When he's an adult and similarly obsessed and similarly anti-social and similarly self-centered, except it now has much farther reaching consequences because he is an adult with responsibilities like university and his family... not so endearing anymore. In fact, very very annoying. I stopped caring about Ronan's love for the Storyteller, because if he's going to hurt his entire family looking for this Storyteller, it's no longer a healthy interest.

And the stories weren't even that good anymore. It's like Frank Delaney spent all the magic on those first few stories, and as he wrote more and more, he just stopped paying so much attention to making them actually compelling. Yes, they're interesting anecdotes but they lacked anything that made them worth more than an anecdote. I mean, these stories go on for pages and pages. An anecdote shouldn't be dragged on that long.

Recommendations for good Ireland novels incredibly welcome.

[Laura Leaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow, winding read about the central stories that make up the core of Ireland's mythology and history. The novel is framed by the story of Ronan O'Mara, who journeys through a great swath of the countryside in search of an itinerant storyteller, a Seanchai, who created an enigmatic obsession in him when he was young. Braided throughout his search are the facts and fictions of the country, as told by the mysterious storyteller. Newgrange, Strongbow, the Battle of the Boyne, St. Patrick, Hugh O'Neill, the creation of Handel's Messiah (and its first performance) in Dublin, the Easter Uprising, are but to name a few of the stories.

The reader also learns about the penal laws, the land laws, and the further depredations levied at the Irish people by the British. Yet, the book focuses on the beauty and "ancient profundity" of the island. Small little things interested me, like the linguistic history of "Uileann pipes" ("uile" is an Irish word for "elbow") or that Galway is called the City of the Tribes, a city that "aches with memories of those who made the long--and, in those days, forced and never to be retraced--journey to the New World." Did you know that Ireland is the only country whose national symbol is a musical instrument? Do you know the Irish origin of the word "boycott"?

The book is sentimental, to be sure. However, since I'll be traveling there next month, I think the stories in this book will help bring the history of the country to life for me in a way that a copy of Lonely Planet's guidebook could not. Despite the contrivance of the frame story, and the slow nature of the episodic pacing, the book is a deep and heartfelt ode to Ireland.

[LG · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I picked up this book and learned that Ireland had wandering storytellers during the twentieth century, I was pleasantly at peace. My heart immediately found its resting rate. However, if a man showed up at my door and told me that all he had to offer was the ability to tell stories, I wouldn’t know what to do. It might bring my heart rate back up a bit. But I love the idea that people invited him in to their homes and listened to his stories. I love the premise enough to allow for some bad storytelling, which for me involves a story that drags out.

While the wandering storyteller provides the novel’s framework, Ronan O’Mara, a protected only child who lacks a certain awareness of others, is the main character. Ronan might soak up stories about Ireland, but he is cut-off from the drama in his own family. Well loved, Ronan’s parents and aunt choose not to tell him the family’s secret. The book portrays Ronan’s intimacy and distance from his family as a combination of the adults deciding to keep a secret from him and his own personality. For me – Ronan’s feelings of helplessness and anger are given a purpose in pursuing the storyteller. By choosing to chase the elusive storyteller, Ronan is chasing a dying vocation. Progress is not always better.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Delaney’s Ireland is my kind of novel. Rich with character, history, and lyrical language, it is at once the chronicle of a nation and the coming of age tale of a young man. The story opens with the arrival of a man who may be Ireland’s last itinerant storyteller, and from the moment he lights his pipe by the fireside, and begins describing the evolution of prehistoric New Grange, his audience is enthralled. As is Ronan, who from that evening on finds his career and his very life shaped by this enigmatic, nameless wanderer. The millenium-long, traumatic epic of a nation’s building, the travails of a single 20th century family, the beauty of the landscape, the pain of loss, forgiveness and love, poets and leprechauns – it’s all here, fascinating and beautifully expressed. If the book has a flaw, it’s in its length. Though it bogs down after the halfway mark, Delaney’s riveting conclusion more than makes up for that. Highly recommended for lovers of good historical fiction.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could maybe go as high as 2.5, but it is no where near a three. I was pretty much skimming the last 200 pages. In Ireland, the reader learns about Irish folklore and history by following the stories of the last Irish Storyteller. It sound much more interesting than it turned out to be. Some of the historic tales captured my interest at the beginning, but the ongoing interludes of the O'Mara family, where young Ronan O'Mara chases the Storyteller around Ireland, just bored me.

[Bridget Vollmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent narration and story telling on the history of Ireland.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A love letter to both Ireland and to the art of storytelling. It's almost pastoral in its depiction of the simple life of the vagabond storyteller, wandering the land and trading tales for room and board.

[Poiema · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book that combined history, myth, and imagination. The stories of Ireland, ancient and modern, form the centerpiece of the book. This could easily be a disjointed collection but the author skillfully weaves a backstory that ties the whole thing together beautifully.

The oral tradition of storytelling was kept alive by a roving master, nearly the last of his breed in 1951. His art sparks an awakening in a young boy in the audience, and the destiny of the two are deftly intertwined. At first the story of their two lives seemed to play a minor role, kind of a backdrop to the stories. As the book progresses, however, the backstory becomes front and center. It is an utterly fascinating read and I learned much about the rich culture of Ireland. Highly recommended!

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of the story and especially liked the concept of interweaving tales of Ireland's history with the main storyline.

But at 650+ pages of dense, slow moving stories, it was a slog. It took me over a month to read, as I would often only be able to read 5-10 pages before the book put me to sleep.

Also, I did not like at all that the story moves along at a painfully slow pace until the last hundred pages or so, when we all of the sudden skip ahead 3 years.

Would only recommend this book if you have lots of caffeine and time on your hands.

[Jean Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't listen to many audio books because I tend to forget to listen and lose part of the story. With this one I listened while hand quilting - and it worked well. I was able to stay focused as I was forced to sit in one place and the repetitive motion of quilting did not demand my attention. The added benefit of making progress on my quilt and the motivation to hear more of the story worked well.
Beautifully read by the author this was a joy to listen to and a good way for me to learn more about Ireland and its people and history from as far back as the 1300's. The characters in the story are living in the 1950's but the inclusion of 'stories' told by an itinerant story teller fill in the 'history' of Ireland and its myths.
* An Author's Note addresses something many of my readings for Modern Fiction class discussed and that is the role of memory, what is fact and what is fiction etc.
Author's Note excerpt:
..."beneath all the histories of Ireland" there is a the "less obvious reporter speaking" via the use of oral tradition: "telling the country's tale to her people in stories handed down since God was a boy."
The fireside voice makes it clear that
". . imagination and emotion insist on playing their parts in every history and therefore, to understand the Irish, mere facts can never be enough. This is a country that reprocesses itself through the mills of it's imagination. But we all do that. We merge our myths with our facts according to our feelings. We tell ourselves our own story. And no matter what we are told, we choose what we believe. All'truths' are only our truths because we bring to the 'facts' our feelings, our experiences, our wishes.
Thus storytelling, from wherever it comes,forms a layer in the foundation of the world and glinting in it we see the trace elements of every tribe on earth."
Planning a trip to Ireland next summer I am reading and watching films about the country.

[Jonathan Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a folklorist, Frank Delaney is pretty decent. As a novelist ... Frank Delaney is a pretty decent folklorist. His book celebrates the Irish tradition of the itinerant storyteller who earns his room and board by spinning tales and captivating audiences. One such storyteller, perhaps the last of his kind, drops by the home of 9-year-old Ronan O'Mara, and for three nights weaves his spell over the boy. One of his stories gets Ronan's mother riled up, and she tosses the storyteller out on his arse, but the damage has been done. As soon as he's old enough, Ronan sets out in the footsteps of the storyteller to find him and learn more. His quest takes him all over the country, always too late to catch the storyteller but in time to hear the stories repeated. The thousands of years of myth and history Delaney recounts in "Ireland" are interesting, but his framework is bland. The travels and travails of storyteller-in-training Ronan feel like dreary rest stops on a vacation thru Ireland's past. Delaney glosses over the darkest moments of history with folksy good cheer, treating the "troubles" like a minor neighbors' tiff to be resolved at the fireside over a worn pipe and a warm cuppa. I picture Delaney as a rosy-cheeked, relentlessly chirpy tour guide reciting well-rehearsed routines with a twinkle in his eye. Well, there are some people who just won't be twinkled at.

[Aisling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book which captures much of the essence of the Irish. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. T. Bartlett Ryle (the professor at Trinity College Dublin) is one of the greatest characters ever.

[Bodosika Bodosika · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel about Ireland folklores and short stories and it was awesomely written.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delaney's use of voice in this novel is excellent, as is the massive amount of local flavor with which he imbues his writing. That's the best I can say about this book.

As you probably already know, Ireland attempts to tell the story of Ireland (surprise, surprise): about half the novel is a frame story set in the 1950s and 60s, concerning a young boy, Ronan, who meets a traveling storyteller and is captivated by Irish history. The other half consists of the stories themselves, told by various people (the storyteller, Ronan, a history professor, various people Ronan meets as he tries to find the storyteller again). The stories are almost all quite short and come in sequential order as we move through history. I'm impressed by just how much Delaney takes this framework to heart: never for a moment does he forget who's telling a story, and the reader will know too, simply by reading a few sentences of it. The local flavor comes in when we're reading the frame story; the places and local characters we meet in it couldn't feel more real.

Still, though, I was disappointed. As a novel, Ireland didn't work for me. The frame story takes up a lot of time and was reasonably interesting, but Ronan was a jerk and there wasn't enough substance there to justify the time spent on him. And the sheer number of words Delaney's characters spent lavishly praising the embedded short stories (written by Delaney) felt self-indulgent. Most of the short stories themselves, meanwhile, didn't work for me. I freely admit that I'm not a short-story person, and had I realized quite how short they would be, may not have read the book (the first story is 40 pages, but after that the average is probably around 12). There simply wasn't enough there in terms of plot, character development, historical information or anything else, for me to care about them. Paradoxically, I think this is what makes so many people like the book--the fact that the stories tell you more about the storyteller than the content of the story, and what that tells us about our constructions of history. It is interesting, and had I been looking for thematics rather than a novel that would suck me in and teach me about Irish history (this one didn't teach me much; someone who's already familiar with Irish history might appreciate it more), I might have liked it better.

Maybe I'm not being fair to this book; my criticism comes more from what I wish it had been than any serious flaws. Nonetheless, potential readers should know that Delaney's Ireland isn't for everyone.

[Donna Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really wonderful read. It was sumptuous and descriptive, all the storyteller's stories along with a plot line in which he is featured. I've had this among my to-reviews for a month now, and I still can't find a way to do this book justice. I'd recommend it for anyone who is interested in Irish history and lore, and especially for those who like a good story and support the unification of Ireland forever.

[Kw · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read this in memory of my Irish brother-in-law, who died a year ago. And a great choice it was, I'll tell you for sure! This book offers a wonderful overview of Irish folktales, history, topography, and people. The Washington Post stated, "History, legend, memory and myth come seamlessly together." They do.

At first I thought it was Irish stories woven together by a novel, but it is those and so much more. I'm so glad I made this choice.

(I miss you, Bill.)

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much! I finally finished this book, but it took a bit of will. Too many stories tied together in a rather convuluted manner. Didn't even feel a connection to the main characters in the book. Thankful the experience is over.

[Candace · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ireland is a story about Ronan, a boy who hears a traveling storyteller for three consecutive nights, and is forever changed by the experience. Ronan’s relationship with the storyteller is mysterious, sometimes frustrating (because the reader really identifies with Ronan’s journey), moving and heartwarming. It is lyrical, for the storytelling is rich with moments that make you sit back and collect yourself, because you didn’t realize that there could be something so poignant written. It is epic, for it spans centuries and millennia without missing a beat. It is transporting, for it feels like you are really there, in a living room by the fire, sharing this moment with Ronan, who is lovable from the moment he is introduced.

Ireland is also a story about stories, the lost art of the traveling storyteller and the way that myths and history are weaved together to form a blanket that encompasses all sides of history. It hearkens to the days when families spoke to each other, sharing their collective histories to pass on to successive generations.

And, to top it all off, it’s beautifully written. Frank Delaney’s writing warms the heart like freshly baked bread (I’m sitting next to a loaf of it right now and it smells the way that I imagine it has smelled for centuries). Rarely have I encountered a book that takes on the whole spectrum of emotions like this book; I wanted to start reading it again the second I finished it, making the stories into part of my own personal story.

I know this review seems like a laundry list of things that I loved about the book. Reading over the review, I see that. The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was that it ended; I’m comforted by the fact that I will be able to read it again and again, revisit the characters in both the Storyteller’s tales Ronan’s narrative. This kind of book does not happen everyday.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally read Ireland by Frank Delaney. I have had the book since last summer, but I ran out of time toward the end of last year to read it entirely. I read the first 100 or so pages at the end of last summer. So I read a couple of books this year, and then went back to Ireland, telling myself that I wasn’t allowed to read anything else until I was finished. I was prepared for a long, laborious week of reading (on top of long days at work, etc.). But I finished it in about three days. I woke up early to read, and I stayed up much too late to read. It was such a wonderful book, I didn’t even want to stop reading it. I still want to go back and copy down my favorite passages, but it will take days and days to do because I had so many favorites. Delaney’s writing was addicting. The story may seem too quaint for many readers, but it was a fabulous read. Smooth and spectacular. The book tells the story of Ronan O’Mara, beginning as a boy of nine, and his search for a Storyteller, a man who had stayed with his family for three nights telling stories of Ireland. As Ronan journeys through life, and throughout Ireland, he never stops searching for the Storyteller. Ronan has his whole life surrounding his search for the Storyteller; the search is the only thing he wants, and he finds himself constantly in the Storyteller’s wake. Ronan’s search for life and the man’s stories is peppered with the stories themselves, which are as spectacular as Ronan’s life itself. I certainly recommend the book, especially to readers who love writing and history. And stories.

[Sue Wargo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Near the beginning of this story the narrator of the story says..."a good story lifts the heart." There is nothing like an Irish brogue in the voice of Frank Delaney telling a compelling story of Ireland. I have enough Irish ancestry to celebrate St. Patrick's day but know little of the stories and legends that pepper the Irish heritage and landscape. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the notion of a story teller who goes from home to home and village to village with not much more than a story in his pocket is a great device. The storyteller hopes to find respite in any home that will listen to his stories and giving him room from any place such as a barn to a long term place among a family unit. I listened to the audio version of this book in my car and was enchanted. You will visit the such tales such as the story of St. Patrick to the potato famine. The story of the two bishops will leave you chuckling. Enjoy this trip to Ireland and you will not be sorry you spent the time there.

[Meag · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories in this book are great for anyone not familiar with Irish folklore and history. The narrative is based on a young boy who grows up looking for the nameless Storyteller and learns more about his country and people from the stories he heard from the Storyteller and the people he meets along the way.

The little twists in the plot are predictable and probably would have been best not to included.

I learned most of these stories when traveling around Ireland for nearly three weeks and meeting with an actual Storyteller. For those not able to travel, this book is an okay substitute.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often will read books along a theme. This was one from my 'Ireland' period. It was a fictional story of the last traveling storyteller in the country, and the boy who became obsessed with following what he did. The book intertwines include the storyteller's tales, which are fictional and historical stories of Ireland, with the the stories of the lives of the storyteller, the boy, and the boy's family. And, like any good Irish story (or at least the ones I grew up on), there's an unexpected twist at the end.