On Canaan's Side by Sebastian Barry

A young Irish couple travel to America to flee a threat of political violence and try to set up their lives there. The novel follows their lives and careers until death and spans a number of generations. This book is undoubtedly well written but not particularly memorable perhaps because there is something distancing about the style of writing which prevents the reader getting too involved in the (fairly slow moving) plot or the characters. I would hesitate to recommend this unless you enjoy good writing for its own sake as I do not think there is much to distinguish this from other novels with more powerful subjects.