The Banyan Tree (Abridged Fiction‪)‬

Covering the 80-plus years of the life of Minnie O'Brien, who is bound to take her place in literature alongside James Joyce's Molly Bloom,
The Banyan Tree is a rich saga of rural Ireland in the 20th century. In distinctly layered prose that has been compared to that of Joyce, Yeats, and Dylan Thomas, Nolan lovingly details the life and times, the triumphs and tragedies, of this spirited woman. Married in 1922 to Peter O'Brien, a good and decent man who nonetheless harbors a terrible secret, Minnie bears him 3 children. Francis, the youngest, leaves home at age 17 to wander the world in search of fame or fortune. It is for him - Minnie's favorite, the prodigal son - that she jealously struggles to keep the five fields willed her by her husband from the clutches of her ambitious and unscrupulous neighbor Jude Fortune.
The Banyan Tree is feisty and colorful, filled with humor and love - and demonstrates forcefully that the gentle world of Minnie's youth is gone forever.