{"product_id":"billy-gogan-american-a-novel-9781609521158","title":"Billy Gogan, American: A Novel","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Billy Gogan story is a fictional memoir told by an old Army general of his adventures as a young man. Billy Gogan, American, opens with recently orphaned Billy Gogan fleeing Ireland on the eve of the Great Hunger -- either because he is the son of a dangerous revolutionary, or because his cousin doesn't trust him around his daughter. Billy befriends a destitute  Irish peasant named Maire and her young daughter Fiona, and together they endure a harsh passage to New York, America's greatest city. They get separated as they debark, and Billy searches tirelessly for them in the dangerous Five Points, ground zero in the collision of Americans, ex-slaves, and Irish refugees.  Here, Billy completes his education. Already able to declaim Cicero and construe Aristotle, he learns voting fraud from Bill Tweed, the future head of Tammany Hall, and the numbers game from Charlie Backwell, Tammany's top bookie. Finally, Brannagh O'Marran, the beautiful mulatta daughter of the Irish madam of Gotham's finest brothel, teaches him about love.  Billy eventually finds Maire and Fiona, and the three of them plan their future together. But that future is taken in a cruel stroke, and nothing will ever be the same.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Roger Higgins is a bare-knuckled storyteller. In this brawny novel, he transports us to the hardscrabble lives of mid-1800s New York Irish immigrants. Though each day brings a new brawl for survival, under Higgins's deft touch, the heartbeat of tenderness, love, and even racial enlightenment pulses through 'Gotham's' brutal veins. \"Higgins writes with a masterful sense of place. His argot and descriptions are so spot-on, you need to close the book and look around your own room to remind yourself that you really are safe and sound in the here and now.\" --Gary Buslik, author of A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean, and Professor of English, University of Illinois, Chicago\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForeword  PART I TA EIRE TAR EIS THREIG ME (IRELAND HAS FORSAKEN ME) Dublin and County Cork, Ireland September 1844  CHAPTER 1 Cricket  CHAPTER 2 Be Gone ... and Damn Yer Hide  CHAPTER 3 If No One Sees It   PART II THE WESTERN OCEAN September 1844 -- January 1845  CHAPTER 4 Anchored  CHAPTER 5 An t-Anfa Mor (The Great Tempest)  CHAPTER 6 Sceal Mhaire (Mary's Story)  CHAPTER 7 Slighe go Mheiricea--Aris (Passage to America--Again)   PART III GOTHAM The Promised Land January -- August 1845  CHAPTER 8 I'm So Cold I Could Die  CHAPTER 9 Right in Front of Me  CHAPTER 10 Building the Grubstake  CHAPTER 11 Dells, Swells and Fires  CHAPTER 12 Free Mulattas and Texas Slaves  CHAPTER 13 Brannagh's Story  CHAPTER 14 Election Day  CHAPTER 15 Citizen Gogan  CHAPTER 16 Saving Her Flesh and Blood  CHAPTER 17 Taking a Round Turn  CHAPTER 18 The Waste of It All   Glossary","brand":"Travelers' Tales, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49533203251543,"sku":"9781609521158","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781609521158.jpg?v=1731890357","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/billy-gogan-american-a-novel-9781609521158","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}