The Garden of Martyrs

by Michael C. White

Book Overview

Two Irish Catholic immigrants, Dominic Daley and James Halligan, were traveling west on the Boston Post Road, headed for New York. A man named Marcus Lyon was robbed and killed along the same road. Though the two Irishmen denied any knowledge of the crime, they were arrested and accused of the murder. They spent five months in jail. Only two days before their trial they were allowed to consult with a lawyer. The trial, a mockery of justice, lasted...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312322097
• ISBN13: 9780312322090
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Griffin
• Length: 359 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Fiction based on reality

Michael C. White has based his novel on a factual incident, which I had never heard of before: a murder in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1805. There are many fine things about this excellently written book, among them a battle for a soul which is the most engrossing I have read since I read Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder(read 18 Mar 1947 - re-read 27 Nov 1982). Usually I prefer a factual account of an event as against a fictional account but in this instance it seems to me that the fictional additions to the account enhance rather than detract from the drama of the events related.

Why you should read this book.

There are some books you read all the way through because you want to finish what you started. There are others you read because you can't help otherwise. When characters like Halligan and Daley, Father Cheverus, even the confused boy who testifies and the girl who serves water become so finely etched in your mind that they morph into tangible thoughts, that I believe is the mark of a great book. White's writing is so precise and powerful that every shuffle, breath and moment of silence can be heard and seen with intense clarity from begining to end. It is not often that one comes across the written word so well executed.

Impressive

It is no accident that Michael C. White's "The Garden of Martyrs" has received unqualified praise from the likes of Anita Shreve, Richard Russo, and A. Manette Ansay. This rich, compassionate, deeply moving novel will no doubt have an impact on American literature for years to come. As this novel amply illustrates, a talented writer can remind us that acts of courage and heroism can take many forms, and can reveal themselves in unlikely and surprising places. Michael White unpacks the crevices and narrow alleyways of "hidden" history, bringing it to life, suggesting how seemingly inconsequential and daily acts of courage and heroism can resonate throughout society and impact history. One will walk away from this novel emotionally drained, but inspired.

Super, affecting and finest kind says Kat from Readerville.c

Marvelously detailed and written novel about various forms of anticatholic prejudice -- from the left and the right, if you will. Based on a true story of two Irishman convicted wrongly of murder and hung in Massachusetts in 1806, and about the priest who reluctantly comes to their aid. I cried my eyes out and that's a good thing.

Garden of Martyrs Rich in characters and detail

Micheal White has scored again. This talented writer takes an obscure event in U.S. history and hammers out a story that is gripping in its development of interesting and empathetic characters and rich in the details of the period to support them. A reader comes away with a gutteral sense of the bigotry of the period toward Catholics, and Irish Catholics in paticular. White draws a portrait of the twisted wreckage a storm of prejudice leaves. White describes the three main characters, Halligan, Daley, and Father Cheverus from the inside out, exposing their thoughts, hopes and doubts to the reader at just the right velocity. He lifts the reader into early 19th century Massachusetts with wonderfully researched detail. This is a book you'll want to linger over for a couple of weeks, but you'll finish it in a couple of sittings.