The Furys Saga Series

A powerful five-volume story of a working-class Irish Catholic family in England by a “novelist of distinction and originality” (E. M. Forster).   In five novels, published between 1935 and 1958, James Hanley chronicled the struggles of an Irish Catholic family of seafarers in a fictional port city based on Liverpool, evoking the harsh realities and frustrated longings of Britain’s working class. The complete saga offers abundant proof that Hanley “is that rarity of rarities: a genuine original” (The New York Times Book Review).   The Furys: As matriarch Fanny Fury struggles to hold her family together, youngest son Peter returns from seminary in disgrace—dashing her hopes for him—and her other son Desmond becomes involved in union organizing and a violent strike, in this “novel of turbulent power” (The New York Times).   The Secret Journey: Fanny Fury continues to sink deeper in debt to moneylender Anna Ragner, who has a grip on all the families in this port city. But it is Peter’s involvement with the woman—complicated by his affair with his brother’s wife—that will lead to a violent end.   Our Time Is Gone: As World War I tears Europe apart, the Fury family is disintegrating as well. With her husband gone back to sea and her beloved son Peter imprisoned, Fanny collapses. Slowly she is able to pull herself up by doing service as a cleaner for troopships.   Winter Song: After Denny Fury’s ship was reported torpedoed, his wife staggered into St. Stephen’s Hospice, prepared to die. But when the shipwrecked old man appears, the reunited couple decides to finally return to Ireland, no matter how difficult the journey.   An End and a Beginning: After serving fifteen years in prison, Peter Fury has been released. With his parents gone, there is nothing left for him in England. A pilgrimage to Ireland to see their final resting place will start him on his new life where he may finally find freedom.

To sustain her family, Mrs. Fury buries herself in debt At the top of the hill on the north side of town, Mrs. Ragner rules over her kingdom. A bitter old loan shark, she has a grip on all the families in this port city, and she squeezes each one for every last cent. For seven years, Mrs. Fury has borrowed money from Mrs. Ragner to send her son Peter to seminary. He never joined the priesthood, but the debt still stands. When she is unable to pay back her loan, Mrs. Ragner is happy to extend more credit. But every time they revisit their agreement, the interest rate rises and Mrs. Ragner’s stranglehold on the Furys tightens.   While his mother struggles to pay back her debts, Peter tries to find his way in the secular world. He is deeply in love with his older brother’s wife, and his passion threatens to upend the family. The Furys think they have sacrificed everything for Peter, but they are not done yet.   The Secret Journey is the second book of James Hanley’s acclaimed Furys Saga.

Out of prison and on his own, Peter Fury struggles to find a place in the world Peter Fury has been in prison for fifteen years and four days, and every minute has been an eternity. He was jailed for killing a woman whose greed had poisoned his family—an honorable crime that merely drove the Furys further apart from one another. On the gloomy day when he steps back into the free world, Peter’s parents are dead and his siblings have scattered. All he has left is himself—but Peter is still a Fury, and one Fury is enough to do almost anything.   In a matter of hours, Peter realizes there is nothing left for him in England. Rather than wither and die like so many ex-cons, this onetime dreamer plans to immigrate to New York and find a new life there. But he has too much history in this blighted dockside town, and it may not be ready to let him go just yet.   An End and a Beginning is the fifth and final book of James Hanley’s acclaimed Furys Saga.

War has come to England, and the Furys soldier on Desmond Fury calls himself a working man, but it has been years since he put in a full shift. A brutally arrogant union leader, he longs to escape the working class and sees World War II as his ticket to better things. He is at a banquet for war recruiters, savoring the atmosphere of refinement, when a call comes from the hospital that drags him right back into the mud.   His mother, the indomitable Mrs. Fury, has collapsed. After years of holding the family together—and making life hell for everyone in it—she lies in the hospital, near death. But Mrs. Fury is not finished yet. As Desmond fights for respectability and her other children wage battles of their own, Mrs. Fury will do what she can to keep her family intact—even if it kills her.   Our Time Is Gone is the third book of James Hanley’s acclaimed Furys Saga.

When her husband comes back from the dead, Mrs. Fury plans a voyage Dennis Fury was too old to return to sea. Nearing seventy, his sailing days long behind him, he should have stayed home—but Britain was at war, and his family needed the money. When his ship was reported lost, his wife, the stalwart Mrs. Fury, staggered into St. Stephen’s Hospice, prepared to die. Twelve months later, as she clings to life, a shipwrecked old man appears near the docks, feeble, sick, and too drunk to know his own name. He has crossed half the planet to return home, but Dennis Fury will find that there is no home waiting for him.   His return is enough to rouse Mrs. Fury from her deathbed. With her last burst of life, she wants to fulfill a dream she gave up on long ago and return with her husband to Ireland. The sea may stand in their way, but the Furys have never hesitated to cross an ocean.   Winter Song is the fourth book of James Hanley’s acclaimed Furys Saga.

A boy returns home from seminary to a family on the verge of collapse For almost seven years, Mrs. Fury has done nothing but think of Peter. Of her five children, he is the youngest, her darling boy whose future she planned out long ago. It was for Peter that she took one child out of college and married another off—for Peter that she sent a third to work at sea. She has sacrificed everything so that Peter could return to Ireland to study for the priesthood. He is to be the family’s salvation—but after seven years in seminary, Peter has failed.   Mrs. Fury receives two telegrams: One telling her that Peter is coming home, the other bearing the news that her eldest son, Anthony, has fallen from his ship’s mast and is in a hospital in New York. With two slips of paper, Mrs. Fury’s hopes for the future are dashed. But this Irishwoman is strong as iron, and she will do whatever it takes to keep her family together—if only for Peter’s sake.   The Furys is the first book of James Hanley’s acclaimed Furys Saga.