The Green Years

One of A. J. Cronin’s best-loved novels, The Green Years is a compassionate story of a boy’s growth to manhood, set against the harsh reality of life at the turn of the century. Robert Shannon is a young Irish Catholic boy who, orphaned at the age of seven, is brought to live with his mother’s estranged family in Scotland. As he grows up in a dour Presbyterian town, only Robert's great-grandfather – an incorrigible, swaggering, charming, larger-than-life character – seems able to rescue him from the narrow interests of the people who try to shape his life in their own image. Disappointed in love and in his burning ambition to study medicine, the eighteen-year-old Robert sees his future as a blank wall. But, once again, he is saved from despair by his fiery relative, much to the chagrin of the rest of the family . . . Originally published in 1944, The Green Years is a heartfelt classic from A. J. Cronin – a vivid gallery of characters imbued with his customary blend of imagination, insight and tenderness. It was adapted for the screen by director Victor Saville, receiving two nominations at the 1946 Academy Awards.