Bella is a clever girl who trains as a school teacher, determined to escape the limitations of her genteel impoverishment. However, when the married manager of the school turns his unwanted attention towards her, the only escape is in marriage with a young army corporal. Years later her husband, Nicholas dies from syphilis and Bella realises she is not the only one who has been keeping secrets ...
From a piano abandoned on the strife-torn streets of Dublin at Easter 1916, Mary Morrissy spins the reader backwards through the life of enigmatic beauty Bella Casey, sister of the famed playwright Seán O’Casey. The real and imagined are entwined in a haunting and deeply affecting novel of sexual secrets, obsession and desires.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
Bella is a clever girl who trains as a school teacher, determined to escape the limitations of her genteel impoverishment. However, when the married manager of the school turns his unwanted attention towards her, the only escape is in marriage with a young army corporal. Years later her husband, Nicholas dies from syphilis and Bella realises she is not the only one who has been keeping secrets ...
From a piano abandoned on the strife-torn streets of Dublin at Easter 1916, Mary Morrissy spins the reader backwards through the life of enigmatic beauty Bella Casey, sister of the famed playwright Seán O’Casey. The real and imagined are entwined in a haunting and deeply affecting novel of sexual secrets, obsession and desires.
Description
From a piano abandoned on the strife-torn streets of Dublin at Easter 1916, Mary Morrissy spins the reader backwards through the life of enigmatic beauty Bella Casey, sister of the famed playwright Seán O’Casey. The real and imagined are entwined in a haunting and deeply affecting novel of sexual secrets, obsession and desires.
Critic Reviews
‘... elegant and unadorned at the same time ... an intimate portrait of a woman and a depiction of Irish history at its most extreme ... a wonderful book from one of our finest writers.’ -- Colum McCann
‘Mary Morrissy has a genius for lifting characters out of the dim backgrounds of history and brilliantly illuminating them. In The Rising of Bella Casey she evokes the rich Dublin world of the plays of Seán O’Casey.’ -- John Banville
‘One of the most intelligent, well-written and well-researched historical novels I have read. Mary Morrissy is the Irish Hilary Mantel.’ -- Eilis Ní Dhuibhne
About the Author
Morrissy was educated at the Rathmines School of Journalism. She worked in Australia, and as a sub-editor of The Irish Press.[1] She has taught creative writing for the University of Arkansas, and University of Iowa creative writing summer programmes. In 1995, she was awarded a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction. Marcella's voice will be familiar to BBC Radio listeners for her roles in numerous plays and poetry readings. She's a recipient of the BBC Radio Best Actress Sony Award for her performance in The Old Jest. Television credits include the leading role in The Long March (winner of TV Drama Samuel Beckett Award). Audiobooks narrated by Marcella include Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce.
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