The Year of the French

Why it’s on the list: The 1798 rising in County Mayo, told through several narrators who each see a different war — a schoolmaster-poet, a Protestant rector, an English officer. Flanagan’s subject is how a political abstraction reaches a village and what it costs there.

Where I heard about it

• Replies to @moseskagan — an answer when he asked “What historical fiction should I read next? (Bonus points for something involving building or trade, rather than violence)” in his thread, April 2025. The full list of answers is on What historical fiction should I… (tweet).

Connections

• Nationalism — the 1798 rising as the collision of imported revolutionary politics with local grievance.
• People Over Politics — the book’s method is to show the ideology from underneath.
• Historical Fiction — the genre the thread was asking about.
• What historical fiction should I… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.