July 29, 2021
“Rockaway Blue is a big, fiery, Irish-American masterpiece – a spellbinding story with characters that come to life with every turn of the page.”— Eoin Colfer, author of Artemis Fowl
Written by author, playwright, and musician Larry Kirwan, 'Rockaway Blue' is a thrilling, poignant and ultimately redemptive story of a family struggling to pull itself together after an unthinkable trauma.
When terrorists attacked on September 11, 2001, Lieutenant Brian Murphy rescued seven people from the World Trade Center. Even as steel girders buckled and groaned, Brian rushed back up the stairs of the North Tower in search of those in need. He died a hero, one of more than four hundred police officers, firefighters and other first responders who perished that fateful day.
Three years later, Vietnam veteran and retired NYPD detective-sergeant Jimmy Murphy is on a mission to find the truth behind his son’s death. Why was Brian in the tower that morning? Had he anticipated the attack? Suspecting a cover-up of a deeper truth, Jimmy must confront his family, friends, and old colleagues in the police department to discover what happened to Brian and who his eldest son really was.
Murphy’s investigation takes him from his home turf in the Irish American enclave of Rockaway Beach to Muslim Atlantic Avenue and beyond in order to find his own truth about 9/11. Dry-eyed and determined, Murphy battles bar stool patriotism, the NYPD blue wall of silence and a ticking clock—all the while haunted by his own secrets and the raw memory of his difficult relationship with his dead son.
Larry Kirwan was the leader of New York-based political rock band Black 47 for 25 years. He is author of five previous books, including, Liverpool Fantasy, Rockin’ The Bronx, and Green Suede Shoes, and nineteen plays and musicals, including Paradise Square which will open on Broadway March 22, 2022. The musical is about the free Blacks and “Famine” Irish who lived and loved together in the Five Points area of NYC during the Civil War until their society was destroyed during the Draft Riots of July 1863.
Kirwan is currently working on a stage version of The Informer. He also hosts Celtic Crush a popular radio show on Sirius/XM and writes a column for The Irish Echo
“This eloquent memoir (Rockaway Blue) establishes Larry Kirwan as the premier voice of the Irish in the New York region, and tells its tale with dramatic tension, humour and elegance.”—Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s Ark
Autographed copies shipped from https://bit.ly/2Zfb55b
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