Country — Michael Hughes

"A propulsive, blood-flecked homage to the Iliad" set in mid-1990s Northern Ireland -- a heart pounding tale of honor and revenge (The New York Times Book Review).

"A classic story, and a gritty contemporary thriller, this book is an extraordinary achievement." -- Stuart Neville, author of The Ghosts of Belfast

Northern Ireland, 1996. After twenty-five years of vicious conflict, the IRA and the British have agreed to an uneasy ceasefire as a first step towards lasting peace. But faced with the prospect that decades of suffering and loss have led only to smiles and handshakes, those on the ground in the border country question whether it really is time to pull back.

When an IRA man's wife turns informer, he and his brother gather their comrades for an assault on the local army base. But when the squad's feared sniper, Achill, suddenly refuses to fight, the British SAS are sent to crush the rogue terror cell before it can wreck the fragile truce and drag the region back to the darkest days of the Troubles.

Inspired by the oldest war story of them all, Michael Hughes's virtuoso novel explores the brutal glory of armed conflict, the cost of Ireland's most uncivil war, and the bitter tragedy of those on both sides who offer their lives to defend the honor of their country.

"Country explodes with verbal invention, rapid juxtaposition, brutality and fun. . . . Hughes's linguistic dexterity, his ear for dialogue, his understanding of character, the energy of his prose." -- Times Literary Supplement (London)

"This is a hard, rigorous and necessary book which grinds out its beauty as the song cycles of empire and resistance fall silent, choked in their own blood." -- Irish Times