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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Historical violence including riots, flood disaster, and Civil War-era brutality
Language
Barely any
Mild profanity
Sexual Content
Some
Romantic and sexual relationships in a 19th-century context; not explicit
Substance Use
Barely any
Social drinking in period settings
Emotional Intensity
Some
Themes of orphanhood, immigrant hardship, and the violence beneath American progress
What this book is about
Daniel Quinn, orphaned son of Irish immigrants, witnesses a flood disaster that kills two people and begins a decades-long entanglement with the eccentric Maginn family. Through the Civil War draft riots, the flowering of early journalism, and a journey through mid-19th century American life, Quinn grows from street urchin to writer. A more swashbuckling historical novel than Kennedy's Albany Cycle contemporaries, it draws on Irish-American folklore and spectacle.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Civil War draft riots
Historical violence
Flood disaster deaths
Reader Verification
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