The Tenants of Time

"[A] powerful story...Some of it is wildly funny, much is beautiful and more is brutal...every sentence seems to shine...in this vivid world we find ourselves suffering and rejoicing with [the characters]...Even as we wholeheartedly agree with [Flanagan's] characters that the true history of the times cannot be written, we are aware that he has just done it, in a work of fiction, this work of fiction." -George Garret, The New York Times

"The wonder of this novel is that, far from making us struggle to recall the past, it puts us at one with the tenants of Time. We are by the end thrust into history." -Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times Book Review

"The Tenants of Time is a masterful historical novel, a rich tapestry of Irish life in the 19th Century, and it is also a novel about the processes of history....Flanagan has made a moment in history come alive for us with vividness that is inspiring." -Digby Diehl, The Los Angeles Times

"Not only one of the best novels I've read in a long while, but also one of the best historical novels any one of us has produced." -Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune

"A model of historical fiction." -Library Journal

"It is a significant literary achievement." -Publishers Weekly