The Flame Is Green by RA Lafferty, 245 pages
In the middle of the nineteenth century, poor Irish fisherman Dana Coscuin is drafted into a revolution. Not the revolution of the radicals who are really superficial, not the revolution of liberals who are really quite close-minded, not the red revolution which claims to be new but is as old as Adam, but the green revolution, which is older still and yet ever new. Although he only knows one song, Dana sings his way into a company of fighters who dance across Europe, from the Carlist hills to 1848 Paris to partitioned Poland, wrestling with principalities and powers as well as flesh and blood.
The Flame Is Green is set in a reenchanted world. The characters consistently intuit future events, although not always accurately, and perform feats that are physically impossible or seemingly inexplicable. Everything is connected, and even the greatest surprises are accepted graciously. The novel will not be to everyone's taste, but no one will mistake it for anything else.
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