JJ Hynes is forty-two, a veteran of the Troubles in Derry and Belfast. He has
sacrificed his life, marriage, family to the Cause. Now he’s on the run. Traumatised,
bewildered, JJ finds refuge in Holland with a survivor of the Dutch Resistance who is
still haunted, like himself, by past memories of war.
Within a year, JJ is called back, tasked with persuading comrades in the West of
Ireland to support the ‘road to peace’, a process he wants to believe in. In the village
of Killoveragh, he encounters Ashling, a might-have-been sweetheart from his time in
Dublin, and her sister Nora.
Can JJ, himself wavering, persuade the hardliners to support the process leading to
peace and a political settlement? Can there be peace, happiness and even love for
somebody like him?
History, politics, and possible redemption come together in a narrative that reads
like a thriller but asks serious and important questions about the interweaving of
personal and national trauma.