Book Reading & Discussion

World famous author and broadcaster Frank Delaney will read excerpts from his new book, Shannon in the Quiet Man Pub on Friday, March 6th at 7:00pm. A book signing will follow, and a limited number of books will be available for purchase.

The Quiet Man Pub is located at the western end of the Embarcadero Building at the top of the brick steps and patio.

Frank Delaney

"Read just a few sentences of Frank Delaney's writing and you'll see why National Public Radio called him 'the world's most eloquent man.'" — Kirkus Reviews, "Big Book Guide 2007"

Frank Delaney, from Tipperary, Ireland, has been a broadcaster with RTE radio and television, the Irish state network, and the BBC in Northern Ireland and London. His work has included newscasting, on-the-ground reporting, and, eventually, arts broadcasting, hosting established programs and inventing new ones, including his own cultural late-night talk show, Frank Delaney.

Among hundreds of other broadcast contributions, including radio and television documentaries, Delaney created Word of Mouth, BBC's top-rated show about language, and wrote and presented The Celts, a six part television series, seen in forty countries and still in active video and DVD distribution. Shannon is his twelfth work of fiction; Ireland: A Novel, published in 2005, was on the New York Times bestseller list in both hardback and paperback and on many other bestseller lists across the US and the UK. In 1981, his first book, the non-fiction James Joyce's Odyssey was published to critical acclaim and best-seller status. Since then, Delaney has written six other books of non-fiction, seen his short stories included in anthologies, and edited compilations of essays and poetry. A screenplay, Goodbye Mr. Chips, was shown recently on ITV in Britain and "Masterpiece Theater" in the USA.

His non-writing contributions to his working world have included judging literary awards like the Booker Prize and chairing literary organizations such as the UK's Book Trust and the Dr. Johnson Society. Frank lives in New York City and Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, Diane Meier.

Photo courtesy of Jerry Bauer.

Shannon

At the vulnerable age of thirty, Robert Shannon lost his soul. Nothing is worse; no greater danger exists. Only sinners lose their souls, it's said, through the evil they do. Not Robert Shannon. Incapable of anything but good, he lost his soul through savagery that he witnessed, horrors that he saw. And then, as he was repairing himself and his beliefs, he was ravaged further in the pursuit of his own faith. When you lose—or have ripped from you—the spirit that directs you, you have two options. Fight for your soul and win it back, and you'll evermore be a noble human being. Fail, and you die from loss of truth.

Frank Delaney, author of the New York Times bestselling Ireland: A Novel and Tipperary: A Novel, returns this winter with SHANNON: A Novel (Random House Hardcover; On Sale February 10, 2009). In the summer of 1922, Robert Shannon, a young American hero of the Great War, lands in Ireland. A Marine chaplain, he was present at the frightful battle of Belleau Wood, and as a result, still suffers from shellshock. His archbishop mentor back in Boston hopes that a journey Shannon had always wished to make—to find his family roots—will restore his equilibrium and his vocation. Unbeknownst to him, the Irish people have also spread a safety net beneath the young man. All along the banks of the river that bears his family name, a chain of support has been put into place—to guide him, nurture him, and protect him.

But there is more to the story: upon his return from the war, Robert Shannon witnessed startling and lethal corruption in the Archdiocese of Boston. As a consequence, he has also been sent to Ireland to secure his permanent silence. At dawn one morning, Robert steps ashore from a freighter in the river's estuary and is thrust headlong into the maelstrom of Irish politics, with the country now roiling from the civil war that followed the 1921 Treaty with Britain. While Robert faces the dangers of a strife-torn nation and is pursued by the venom of true evil, Ireland's myths and people, its beliefs and traditions, its humor and wit, unfurl healingly before his feet every step of the way. SHANNON is a timeless and unforgettable account of salvation, belief, duty, and the healing power of discovering one's roots. In these pages, faith, commitment, the benign quirks of Irish myth, and the menace of Irish history all coalesce into an epic narrative of one young American's travels to his family's beginning and through a hopeful nation rushing toward the future.