Fallen

Spring 1915, Dublin. Katie Crilly - a young woman trying to find her place in a restrictive society - gets the news she dreaded: her beloved twin brother, Liam, has been killed on the Western Front.

A year later, when Dublin is suddenly engulfed by the violence of the Easter Rising, Katie finds herself torn between her loyalty to the cause her brother died for, her instinctive Irish patriotism, and her love for her city and its people. Taking refuge in the home of friends, she meets Hubie Wilson, a comrade of Liam's from the Front. There unfolds a remarkable encounter between two young people, both wounded and both trying to imagine a new life. As the world Katie knows is turned upside down by insurrection, previously unimaginable things suddenly seem possible.

In Fallen, Lia Mills has produced a magnificent and enduring portrait of a young woman coming of age amidst violence and loss.

'A hugely evocative and skilful novel.' Kevin Barry

'This is an historical story with an urgency that is completely modern: Fallen is shot through with the pleasure and the difficulty of being alive.' Anne Enright

'[An] intelligent, beautifully written tale of ordinary people in troubled times.' Sunday Independent

'Absorbing . . . Mills is a fine storyteller.' Sunday Times

'Vivid . . . a careful study of how grief, oppression, violence and, above all, the imperative to follow orders can blight people's lives.' Irish Mail on Sunday

'Powerful . . . Katie is a brilliantly realised heroine . . . humane and compelling.' Sunday Business Post