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The Garden of Martyrs
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
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About this ebook
A Catholic parish is torn apart when two of its members are accused of murder
The year 1806 is not a good time to be Catholic in Boston. When a man is brutally killed on the Boston Post Road, two unsuspecting Irishmen are charged with the crime. For five months they rot in prison, denied a lawyer until just two days before the hearing. It is a mockery of justice—a one-day trial that results in a unanimous verdict: The Irishmen will be hanged, dissected, and dismembered.
Comforting them falls to Father Cheverus, a French émigré struggling to adapt to life in the New World. It is his duty to help the condemned find peace, but any overture he makes to the prisoners will be met with an anti-Catholic backlash that could destroy his fledgling congregation. As he walks a fraught path, the priest must decide: Is his obligation to his flock, or to God?
The year 1806 is not a good time to be Catholic in Boston. When a man is brutally killed on the Boston Post Road, two unsuspecting Irishmen are charged with the crime. For five months they rot in prison, denied a lawyer until just two days before the hearing. It is a mockery of justice—a one-day trial that results in a unanimous verdict: The Irishmen will be hanged, dissected, and dismembered.
Comforting them falls to Father Cheverus, a French émigré struggling to adapt to life in the New World. It is his duty to help the condemned find peace, but any overture he makes to the prisoners will be met with an anti-Catholic backlash that could destroy his fledgling congregation. As he walks a fraught path, the priest must decide: Is his obligation to his flock, or to God?
Author
Michael C. White
<p>Michael White's previous novels include the <em>New York Times</em> Notable Book <em>A Brother's Blood</em> as well as <em>The Garden of Martyrs</em> and <em>Soul Catcher</em>, both Connecticut Book of the Year finalists. He is the director of Fairfield University's MFA program in creative writing, and lives in Connecticut. </p>
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Reviews for The Garden of Martyrs
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an outstanding novel about a not often written about time in the growth of the United States. It is a study in prejudice, persecution and hatred against foreigners immigrating to the Boston era in 1805-6. Based around a real trial of two Irish Roman Catholic immigrants Dominic Daley and James Halligan (pardoned finally by Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in 1984), it explores the climate of that time ~ and how the two were basically found guilty on who they were (there was no evidence to speak of). It was quite a sad learning experience, but what an outstanding novel. The third character is a French priest who came to the area to escape persecution himself during the Revolution. There are beautiful explorations on what it means to help someone, what it means to sacrifice and being ready to die for what you believe in. Never preachy (quite a task), but very informative historically, I heartily recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in that time, the development of the Roman Catholic Church and the Irish American immigrant experience of that time. I also am an attorney and tend to avoid "trial books" like the plague, but this one is very well done, pretty accurate on what goes on in the courtroom. Just a great novel, period.
Book preview
The Garden of Martyrs - Michael C. White
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