Billy Gogan, American - by Roger Higgins (Paperback)

About the Book

Life is harsh in mid-19th-century New York, where 15-year-old orphaned Irish immigrant Billy Gogan lands to make his way in the Five Points, the city's greatest slum. He learns about political corruption, love, and the ephemeral nature of being as he faces forces much stronger than himself. His pluck and wits keep him a step ahead of disaster while he chases his dreams.

Book Synopsis

The Billy Gogan story is a fictional memoir told by an old Army general of his adventures as a young man. Billy Gogan, American, opens with recently orphaned Billy Gogan fleeing Ireland on the eve of the Great Hunger -- either because he is the son of a dangerous revolutionary, or because his cousin doesn't trust him around his daughter. Billy befriends a destitute Irish peasant named Máire and her young daughter Fíona, and together they endure a harsh passage to New York, America's greatest city. They get separated as they debark, and Billy searches tirelessly for them in the dangerous Five Points, ground zero in the collision of Americans, ex-slaves, and Irish refugees.

Here, Billy completes his education. Already able to declaim Cicero and construe Aristotle, he learns voting fraud from Bill Tweed, the future head of Tammany Hall, and the numbers game from Charlie Backwell, Tammany's top bookie. Finally, Brannagh O'Marran, the beautiful mulatta daughter of the Irish madam of Gotham's finest brothel, teaches him about love.

Billy eventually finds Máire and Fíona, and the three of them plan their future together. But that future is taken in a cruel stroke, and nothing will ever be the same.

Review Quotes

"Roger Higgins is a bare-knuckled storyteller. In this brawny novel, he transports us to the hardscrabble lives of mid-1800s New York Irish immigrants. Though each day brings a new brawl for survival, under Higgins's deft touch, the heartbeat of tenderness, love, and even racial enlightenment pulses through 'Gotham's' brutal veins.

"Higgins writes with a masterful sense of place. His argot and descriptions are so spot-on, you need to close the book and look around your own room to remind yourself that you really are safe and sound in the here and now."

--Gary Buslik, author of A Rotten Person Travels the Caribbean, and Professor of English, University of Illinois, Chicago


"The author's research is impeccable. Life in the slums of Five Points during the 1840s is well-written and rich in historical detail, giving a fascinating glimpse of the period. This story includes tales of love, power struggles, murder, racism, election fraud, criminal behavior and deception. Highly recommended." --The Historical Novel Society in a review of Billy Gogan, American

From The Historical Novel Society Review of Billy Gogan, American by Roger Higgins In 1844, 15-year-old Billy Gogan is dismissed from St. Patrick's College in Ireland after his father's death in prison. He goes to his cousin Séamas's home and is given a ticket for passage on the Maryann from the city of Cork to New York. While awaiting departure, he sees his mentor and friend Father O'Muirhily murdered on the quay by a man dressed in black. Because he is aboard ship, he is unable to report the crime and wonders who killed the priest and why. While the ship sails for New York, he befriends a young woman, Mary Skiddy, and her young daughter. Unfortunately, they are separated upon their arrival at Gotham. He is told many Irish gravitate towards Five Points, so he begins walking there to look for her. When in Five Points, a rough slum inhabited by the Irish and ex-slaves, he becomes a bookkeeper in a numbers game and befriends young Bill Tweed, who introduces him to the crooked politics of Tammany Hall. Eventually he locates Mary Skiddy and her daughter, and they develop a close brother-sister relationship. Bill eventually begins a forbidden love affair with a mulatto girl, the daughter of an Irish madam at one of Gotham's better brothels. He is unaware that the man in black is on his trail. The author's research is impeccable. Life in the slums of Five Points during the 1840s is well-written and rich in historical detail, giving a fascinating glimpse of the period. This story includes tales of love, power struggles, murder, racism, election fraud, criminal behavior and deception. Highly recommended.

About the Author

Roger Higgins was born in England and became a lawyer after retiring from the Navy. He continues to practice law and write novels. Roger lives in Chicago.