Forever: A Novel by Hamill, Pete (2003) Paperback

Departing the shores of Ireland, Cormac O'Connor sets out on a fateful journey to avenge the deaths of his parents and honor the code of his ancestors. His quest brings him to the settlement of New York, seething with tensions between English and Irish, whites and blacks, British and "Americans," where he is swept up in a tide of conspiracy and violence. In return for aiding an African shaman who was brought to America in chains, Cormac is given an otherworldly gift: He will live forever-as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan. So unfolds the story of the intertwined lives of a man and a city. Cormac comes to know all the buried secrets of Manhattan-the way it has been shaped by greed, race, and waves of immigration, by the unleashing of enormous human energies, and above all, by hope.