Book Review: Epic Tale Of Redemption

Bob Huerter’s newest novel is a saga of suffering and victory set in Belfast, Dublin and Upperchurch in Ireland, as well as in Omaha, Nebraska and Butte, Montana. Spanning nearly 50 years this wonderfully spun tale’s success lies in Mr. Huerter’s phenomenal development of characters in both countries, as well as in the staggering amount of research this familial drama must have required.

Irish Twins: A Novel of The Troubles begins with the birth of two brothers in a Dublin convent. While duplicates in appearance, the two boys will begin their lives on wholly different tracks. The orphans are given up for adoption and while one is sent to Montana to enjoy the wealth of an Irish emigrant, the other will be sent north to reside in a Belfast ghetto.

Mr. Huerter’s descriptions of both the boys and their new environs is truly a great bit of writing. He writes as though he grew up then and there, in both places simultaneously. Expectantly, the boys have near nothing in common. The vastness and big skies of Montana and wealth share nothing with the ghetto of Belfast under the yoke of British rule, yet the boys find themselves on a collision course with one another.

Following the death of a high-ranking British Official, Martin O’Kane, the brother who remained in The North of Ireland, seeks refuge in the United States. In a coincidence that ties the rest of the epic together, his brother, Mick Quinlan, returns to Ireland for the first time since his birth.

Unaware that he has a twin bother, much less a brother who happens to be an IRA assassin, Mick is jailed for life, without a public trial or legal representation. He is locked up in the infamous Long Kesh prison during the hunger strikes of 1981, when Bobby Sands and nine others gave their lives to bring attention to the British atrocities in the Northern Six counties and beyond.

What follows is an epic tale of redemption and camaraderie as a cast of characters help our readers through this novel of grand scope. Well done, Mr. Huerter.

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