| On Canaan's Side | |
| Author: | Sebastian Barry |
| Country: | Ireland |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Publisher: | Faber and Faber |
| Release Date: | 24 July 2011 |
| Media Type: | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages: | 272 pp (Hardback) |
| Isbn: | 978-0-571-22653-5 |
| Preceded By: | The Secret Scripture |
On Canaan's Side is a 2011 novel written by Irish playwright and novelist Sebastian Barry.[1]
The novel is narrated by the 89-year-old Lily Bere, the sister of Annie Dunne (2002) and Willie Dunne from A Long Long Way (2005), and the daughter of the character Thomas Dunne from The Steward of Christendom (1995), as she looks back on her life, having lived through the Irish War of Independence and escaped to Chicago with her boyfriend Tadg Bere. The Cleveland East Ohio Gas explosion of 1944 is referenced within the story and plays an important role in the plot.
On The Omnivore, a British aggregator of press reviews, the book received an "omniscore" of 3.5 out of 5.[2] In Bookmarks Jan/Feb 2012 issue, a magazine that aggregates critic reviews of books, the book received a (4.00 out of 5) with the summary stating, "Reviewers found Lilly's story just as accomplished, describing it as rich and authentic, stripped free of the sentimentality that often clouds war-themed fiction".[3]