What follows is a portrait of the "city of memory of which Cormac was the only citizen." Cormac fights in the American Revolution, sups with Boss Tweed (in a very sympathetic portrait) and lives into the New York of 2001. His recovery takes a miraculous turn when Kongo's dead priestess, Tomora, appears and grants Cormac eternal life and youth-so long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan, thus the "Forever" of the title. Cormac saves Kongo from death, but is shot in the process. After the rising is quelled, mobs take to the streets and Kongo is seized. On board ship, Cormac befriends African slave Kongo, and once in New York, the two join a rebellion against the British. Seeking to avenge the murder of his father by the Earl of Warren, he follows the trail of the earl to New York City. The year is 1741 and this is the story of Cormac O'Connor-"Irish, and a Jew"-who grows up in Ireland under English Protestant rule and is secretly schooled in Gaelic religion, myth and language. This novel demands that the reader immediately suspend disbelief, but if this summons is heeded the reward will be a superior tale told by Hamill ( Snow in August A Drinking Life) in the cadence of the master storyteller.
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