Publisher's Synopsis
A visionary novel of Northern Ireland, back in print!
The Children's War
David Bellin
Michael Connaught was an Ulster Protestant with a conscience, a compassionate man in an organization not noted for its compassion in 1973: The Royal Ulster Constabulary.
Daniel O'Connell (named after the great Irish statesman and weary of it) was an eighteen-year-old Catholic, a charismatic leader with a bizarre and violent blueprint to mobilize children into an awesome new force in Ulster's civil war.
In this prophetic novel, a man and a youth from opposing worlds become friends, then wily foes amid a nightmare of shootings, assassinations and terrorist bombings. As they duel, each finds his illusions burned away until only the most elemental truths remain about human folly and human purpose.
Drawn into their vortex are a militant IRA leader with a humane side; a saintly priest with a worldly side; an obsessed female terrorist who will not wait for anything she wants, and a lovely Irish girl prepared to wait forever.
"Arresting first novel...a satisfying novel that illuminates compassionate souls on both sides of a terrible struggle"--Publishers Weekly
"Contemporary fiction with something substantive to say...builds to power and excitement"--Library Journal
"A gripping story, well told"--Bookviews
"Commendable...lends insight into the scarred minds of the people involved...strong supporting cast and rich language"--VOYA
"(Readers) will be rewarded with strong characters and an incisive vision of the Irish conflict&hellipThe Children's War is a moving tale"--West Coast Review of Books
"Enjoyed reading the novel...conveys well the senselessness of the violence in Northern Ireland"--National Catholic News Service
"Convincingly portrays life in Ulster where neither predator nor victim is in control of his existence"--Catholic Tribune
David Bellin is a retired advertising executive, the winner of a CLIO award, the ad world's 'Oscar.' He and his wife live in the vineyard and dairy farm countryside of New York State's Finger Lakes.
An avid amateur historian, he followed The Children's War account of conflict in Northern Ireland with Sherman's Chaplain, a U.S. Civil War novel about an idealistic young preacher swept into the brutality of combat. Civil War News noted, "David Bellin has woven the events of 1864 and 1865 into a very enjoyable, enlightening and thought-provoking work of historical fiction."
He switched genres with his third volume, The Marble King and Other Stories, leaving armed conflict behind for a short story collection praised by San Francisco Review as "Enticing and beautifully written...there is a reality to the settings and characters reminiscent of John Cheever's short stories, with some of the edginess and darkness found in Flannery O'Connor's writings."
Next on his schedule is Beating Svetlana, fiction inspired by the world of international chess, called by Bellin, "An endless source of intense drama and wacky humor, usually at the same time."
