Forever

By: Pete Hamill

Narrated by: Stevie Ray Dallimore

From the bestselling author of Snow in August and A Drinking Life comes this magical, epic tale of an extraordinary man who arrives in New York City in 1740 and remains...forever.

From the shores of Ireland, Cormac O'Connor sets out on a fateful journey to avenge the deaths of his parents and honor the code of his ancestors. His quest brings him to the settlement of New York, seething with tensions between English and Irish, whites and blacks, British and "Americans," where he is swept up in a tide of conspiracy and violence. In return for aiding an African shaman who was brought to America in chains, Cormac is given an otherworldly gift: He will live forever -- as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan.

Cormac comes to know all the buried secrets of Manhattan -- the way it has been shaped by greed, race, and waves of immigration, by the unleashing of enormous human energies, and above all, by hope.

Through it all, Cormac must fight a force of evil that returns relentlessly in the scions of a single family whose path first crossed his in Ireland. As he searches out these blood enemies, he must watch everyone he touches slip away. And so he seeks the one who can change his fate, the mysterious dark lady who alone can free him from the blessing and the curse of his long life.

Drawing on Pete Hamill's bone-deep knowledge of New York City, Forever is his long-awaited masterpiece, a Shakespearean evocation of the mysteries of time and death, sex and love, character and place. It is both an unforgettable drama and a timeless triumph of storytelling.

Good Book

I had not read anything about the book before listening to it, so I was a bit surprised when the story skipped through time with the same character. Then I realized this book was also a bit of a history lesson of NYC. I thought of my own experiences (limited) in NYC and the places the Cormac lives, works, and visits.

I am usually a Tom Clancy/John Grisham listener...I got this book for my wife, but I ended getting into the book just as much as she did.

Manhattan early history

I love the look back at the early life of Manhattan and its people from a writer with an incredible love of the city.

Time travel on Manhattan

The plot connected many varied characters and scenes and also some of the history of Manhattan as the likable protagonist provided good company on the journey to achieve his goal.

Forever

This was a very well written book, full of history and well defined characters. I was really impressed by how the author tied in history and recent events. I think it took a lot of courage to take an extra year to finish the book to tie it all together. It is kind of creepy to think about how it all happened. The afterward by the author was very good too.

Disappointed that it was abridged.

I liked the essence of the story but unfortunately because the audio was abridged much of the richness of his writing style is lost.