The Abstainer

‘Truly terrific' Richard Ford
'Dickens for the twenty-first century' Roddy Doyle
'A powerful, gripping tale' Sunday Times


A man hanging on by a thread.
A city about to snap.
 
From the acclaimed author of The North Water comes an epic story of revenge and obsession.
 
Manchester, 1867
 
Two men, haunted by their pasts.
Driven by the need for justice.
 
Blood begets blood.
In a fight for life and legacy.
 
Stephen Doyle arrives in Manchester from New York. He is an Irish-American veteran of the Civil War and a member of the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland, by any means necessary. Now he has come to seek vengeance.
 
James O'Connor has fled grief and