This ambitious historical novel mixes fact and fiction to bring us the compelling and beautiful story of Bella Casey, sister to the famed Irish playwright Sean O'Casey.
Beginning during the Easter uprising in Dublin 1916 this intelligent, well-written and well-researched novel skips back in time recalling this fascinating character during a turbulent time in Ireland's history.
Bella is a bright, clever girl who trains as a school teacher, determined to escape the limitations of her genteel impoverishment and become a 'mistress of her own life'. However, the manager of her school, the Rev Archibald Leeper, a married clergyman, develops a morbid attachment to her, which is to colour the rest of her life.
Bella is a bright, clever girl who trains as a school teacher, determined to escape the limitations of her genteel impoverishment and become a 'mistress of her own life'. However, the manager of her school, the Rev Archibald Leeper, a married clergyman, develops a morbid attachment to her, which is to colour the rest of her life.
'With great skill and vividness, Mary Morrissy gives voice to a fascinating but previously hidden woman. The result is a novel that is compelling and beautiful, no mere tale of historical restoration but a story full of strange resonances for our own time'-- Joe O'Connor
'In language that manages to be both elegant and unadorned at the same time, Mary Morrissy makes history rhyme with fiction. Morrissy tells the story of Bella Casey, but is well aware that the local becomes the universal. This is an intimate portrait of a woman and a profoundly necessary depiction of Irish history at its most extreme. From a piano left abandoned on the street, Morrissy has fashioned the notes between the ephemeral and the eternal. This is a wonderful book from one of our finest writers.' -- Colum McCann
'Mary Morrissy has a genius for lifting characters out of the dim backgrounds of history and brilliantly illuminating them. In The Rising of Bella Casey she evokes the rich Dublin world of the plays of Sean O'Casey, and creates a moving drama that O'Casey himself would have acknowledged.' -- John Banville
Author
About Mary Morrissy
Mary Morrissy has published two novels, Mother of Pearl (shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize) and The Pretender (nominated for the IMPAC award), and a collection of short stories, A Lazy Eye. She is a winner of the prestigious US Lannan Prize and the Hennessy Award for short fiction. Her short stories have been widely published and anthologised in the UK and the US, most recently in the Faber Book of Irish Short Stories 2011. Her story ‘The Scream’ won honourable mention in Best American Short Stories 2010, edited by Richard Russo. The Rising of Bella Casey is her first novel with O’Brien Press.
Bella is a bright, clever girl who trains as a school teacher, determined to escape the limitations of her genteel impoverishment and become a 'mistress of her own life'. However, the manager of her school, the Rev Archibald Leeper, a married clergyman, develops a morbid attachment to her, which is to colour the rest of her life.
The Rising of Bella Casey features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Book Club Recommendations, eBooks of the Month, Fiction, General Fiction, Recommendations
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The Rising of Bella Casey was written by Mary Morrissy and published by Bolinda Audio
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