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Bibliography Information:
Collection: Adult Fiction
Call Number: F
Author: Walsh, S. Kirk
Title: The elephant of Belfast
Remainder of title: a novel
Summary, etc. note: "The Elephant of Belfast chronicles a seven-month period of time when the Germans unexpectedly bombed Belfast, Northern Ireland, also known as the Belfast Blitz. Through the lens of the Bellevue Zoo and one of its zookeepers, twenty-year-old Hettie Quin, the novel animates how the war irrevocably impacted-and shaped the lives of Belfast's citizens in broad and intimate ways. In October 1940, Hettie meets Violet, a three-year-old Asian elephant arriving at the Belfast docks from Ceylon. Soon, she becomes Violet's dedicated zookeeper at the Bellevue Zoo. At the same time, Hettie continues to experience the grief related to the recent loss of her beloved older sister, Anna, and the abandonment of her father, Thomas, who left her mother, Rose. On April 15th , 1941, Belfast is attacked for five hours, with 674 bombs falling, and almost a thousand civilians being killed. During the bombings and its aftermath, Hettie does all that she can to save her elephant, and survive the destruction and escalating sectarian unrest of the city. Even though Hettie is still only twenty years old by the novel's end, she's aged at least a decade, her life and perspective transforming in tragic and unexpected ways. Taken altogether, The Elephant of Belfast reflects a complicated portrait of loss, grief, love, and resilience, and how the zoo and the city of Belfast suffered during these catastrophic attacks. At the narrative's heart is a changing relationship between a young woman and an elephant: At first, it seems that Hettie saves Violet, but in the end, Violet saves her"--

International Standard Book Number: 9781640094000
: (ebook)
: (hardcover)
Canceled/invalid ISBN: 9781640094017
Description conventions: rda
Authentication code: pcc
Geographic area code: e-uk-ni
Classification number: PS3623.A366146
Item number: E44 2020
Edition number: 23
Classification number: 813/.6
Relator term: author.
Statement of responsibility, etc.: S. Kirk Walsh.
Edition statement: First hardcover edition
Place of publication: Berkeley, CA
Name of publisher: Counterpoint
Date of publication: 2021
Projected publication date: 1111
: Berkeley, California :
: Counterpoint Press,
: 2020.
Extent: 320 pages
: rdacontent
: text
: txt
: rdamedia
: unmediated
: n
: rdacarrier
: volume
: nc
: Provided by publisher.
Source of acquisition: B & T 6/11/21
Purchase price: 27.00
Subject: Historical fiction-WW11
Subject: Indian Elephant
Subject: Zookeeper
Subject: Love
Subject: Belfast Northern Ireland
Geographic name: Belfast (Northern Ireland)
Form subdivision: Fiction.
General subdivision: History
Chronological subdivision: Bombardment, 1941
Source of term: gsafd
Genre/form data or focus term: Historical fiction.
: acquire
: 1 shelf copy
: policy default
: xn11 2021-05-25 1 copy rec'd., to CIP ver.
: xk33 2020-04-14
: xk33 2020-04-14 (telework) to CIP

Bibliography Copy Information:

Barcode # Description Status Status Dt Due Back
52008 checked in 2023-05-10 09:46:19