Angels on a Tombstone

The 2019 Independent Press Award Winner for Historical Fiction


Devoted to free Ireland from British dominance, Jeremiah Knox joined the Fenian Brotherhood in the late 1880s committed to remove the British by military insurrection. Realizing the limits of armed rebellion, he enrolled at Edinburg University to study law in the belief that political persuasion coupled with military action would be the most effective course to remove the oppressors. During a summer break in his studies he planned an ambush of a British munitions train.

Snitches in the Fenian Brotherhood revealed the plot to the British exposing Jeremiah and his fellow conspirators. The majority of the Fenian prisoners were sentenced to long jail terms. A first time offender, Jeremiah's sentence was immediate deportation, exiled to the United States where a family member had sponsored him. On arriving in Boston, Jeremiah learned that his family, opposed to his politics and in concert with the court in Dublin, had him dispatched to a stone quarry in Central Massachusetts. Alone and isolated in quiet region of the country, he was far away from his political connections in Ireland as well as from the Fenians active in cities along the East Coast.

There, sentenced to back–breaking labor cutting stones for graveyards, he knew he must find a new platform in life to replace his career in law. Angels on a Tombstone is a sweeping novel that traces one man's life from exile to the search for meaning and involvement in the New World. It tracks his evolution from stoic acceptance of his condition to a life full of opportunity, love and, inevitably, loss.





"Readers interested in learning more about the immigrant experience through the compelling story provided in fiction will find ANGELS ON A TOMBSTONE a vivid blend of coming of age, political and social changes, and a young man's journey to a strange land and new purposes."

~CALIFORNIA BOOKWATCH, October 2018





"ANGELS ON A TOMBSTONE is a sweeping novel that traces one man's life from exile to the search for meaning and involvement in the New World. It tracks his evolution from stoic acceptance of his condition to a life full of opportunity, love and, inevitably, loss."

~MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, August 2018


"In the case of ANGELS ON A TOMBSTONE, Foran's fascinations manifested themselves in research on the characters, topics and issues of the day." –– Joshua Lyford, WORCESTER Magazine