Broken Irish — Edward J. DeLaney

"Epic in its scope but relentlessly compelling in its storytelling -- not a common combination -- Broken Irish is a splendidly readable and richly textured novel. Edward J. Delaney is an enormously gifted writer." -- Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain and Perfume River

"Truly indelible. . . . [Delaney] cares about details and understands their importance to the larger themes of loss, desperation, and betrayed loyalties. His characters are not merely vehicles for ideas, but rather fully realized, familiar people, whose failures are heartbreakingly authentic." -- Boston Globe

As the millennium approaches, "Southie" is still a place where little distinguishes mob bosses from pillars of industry, the bullied from the bullies, and the pious from the pitiful. In this tough Boston neighborhood, six lives are about to converge: Jimmy, an alcoholic writer, whose life is unalterably changed after witnessing an accident; Jeanmarie, a teenage runaway, whose quest for independence leads down a dark path; Christopher, a young Catholic school dropout with a gnawing secret; Colleen, a war widow whose grief has blinded her to the needs of her son; Father John, a priest on the eve of forced retirement; and Rafferty, a wealthy businessman who hires a ghostwriter to tell his story.

In Broken Irish, Delaney trains his journalist's ear, his filmmaker's eye, and his writer's heart on each of their stories -- creating a driven and deeply human narrative that pierces the core of the American experience. He also gives us a captivating portrait of South Boston in the late-1990s -- a time when "Whitey Bulger has evaporated into the ether but his boys still kick around on the street corners . . . waiting for Whitey's Second Coming."

Edward J. Delaney is an award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and author of four works of fiction, including Follow the Sun and Broken Irish, both published by Turtle Point Press. He lives and teaches in Rhode Island.