Books by Liam O'Flaherty

The sea roars dismally around the shores of Inverara. Tortured by the chaos of his shell-shocked mind, a stranger takes a room on the island. Here lives Red John, scavenger of wreckage, with his beautiful wife, Mary, pirate blood in her veins. Unlit by sensuality, suffused by hate, the couple's married years have been stifling ... until the presence of the stranger unleashes their passions. But with autumn comes a sense of catastrophe in this story of human desire, and the stranger fears for his sanity. O'Flaherty's prose -- with its eye for the tiny details and vast dramas of nature -- recreates the magnificence of his place of birth. As Wuthering Heights is to the Yorkshire moors, so The Black Soul is to the Aran Islands.

Liam O'Flaherty's classic novel of the Great Hunger (1845-49) in Ireland is also an indictment of tyranny.

Gypo Nolan informs on a comrade in this powerful novel set just after the Irish Civil War.

Liam O'Flaherty's Ireland portrays through atmospheric black-and-white photographs and breathtaking color images the stark beauty of the Aran Islands and other splendors of Ireland. A detailed biography of this famous son of the Aran Islands and one of Ireland's greatest writers offers insights into the writer's early years, his World War I experiences, his involvement in the Irish Civil War and community politics, and his rise to fame in the 1920s. Quotations from O'Flaherty's work compliment the text. A beautiful gift book for lovers of Irish literature and landscapes.

In the underworld of 1920s Dublin, Mr. Gilhooley, his lover Nelly, and their companions clash in an urbanized society for which they are unprepared. Death, violence, sex, religion and love entwine, weaving paths of good and evil in this powerful psychological thriller.

O'Flaherty wrote this shocking and compelling novel about trench warfare in World War I using his own experiences in the Irish Guards. A classic wartime story, it was originally published in 1929, yet on the eightieth anniversary of the end of World War I its truths continue to resonate as wars rage throughout the world.

Desire for personal freedom fits uneasily with commitment to traditional community values and a stubborn narrow-mindedness in this tale of struggle between Skerret, the national schoolteacher, and the parish priest, Father Moclair.

On Saturday, Lily McSharry returns to her island home with her young husband. Absent from the welcoming crowd at the pier is Lily's first love, Hugh, now Fr. McMahon, the island curate. In a powerful story of conflict between religion and love, McMahon must choose between celibacy and a renewed involvement with Lily. The explosive and passionate story that unfolds is told with skilful exacting prose, of the kind that has led to Liam O'Flaherty being described as 'a master weaver of words'.

This satirical tract, written in the tradition of Swift's A Modest Proposal was first published in 1930 as a scathing critique of the new Irish nation. In the guise of a general guide to Ireland for foreign tourists, O'Flaherty argued that to enjoy a country seemingly bent on eradicating pleasure, one must understand social conditions. No aspect of society is immune from his attack -- the priests use religion to enslave people, and they oppose any writing that challenges their concept of life. Politics takes its tone from religion. For O'Flaherty, the peasants are the only hope for Ireland, if only they can rid themselves of the priests and politicians.