Janet Frascarelli

In the Shadow of My Father Janet Frascarelli

"In the Shadow of My Father" is the final installment in the trilogy of the Culhane family. In Book I "The Flowers of Eire" and Book II "Rory" we have journeyed from their humble beginnings in Ardara, County Donegal, Ireland to 19th Century England and Australia. In this last of the three novellas, Rory Culhane's son, Sergei, grows into manhood, beginning his studies in medicine, as did his father. After being wounded during Jameson's Raid in pre-Boer War South Africa, he returns home, falling in love with and marrying Edwina Gordon. She bears him two sons, Edwin and Thomas. Edwin follows in the Culhane men's footsteps, studying medicine. After his tour of duty aboard the HMS Furious in the World War I Royal Navy, he returns to Melbourne, resuming his life. Thomas, Edwin's younger brother, veers from the well-trodden path of his family and enters the priesthood, finally returning to take a post at the church in his ancestor's home town of Ardara. This family saga spans the years from the mid-nineteenth century to 1928 and returns the Culhanes full-circle to their roots.