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.

Billy Gogan, American: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Higgins, Roger

Genre Fiction

Travelers' Tales/Solas House

The second book in the Billy Gogan Series by Roger Higgins is a powerful and thrilling historical novel about friendship, cruelty, and the search for love during the most brutal battles of the Mexican American War. The adventures continue for Billy Gogan, an intrepid Irish-American immigrant. Young Billy enlists in the U.S. Army on the eve of the war. Amidst the bloodshed he encounters the Texas Rangers, Ulysses S. Grant and friends who fight alongside him. 
 Billy navigates a dangerous path through gambling dens, wealthy estates, mysterious women, and sweltering heat. While challenged to follow meaningless orders, he struggles to escape a threat more imminent than war. 
 Roger Higgins, author of Billy Gogan, American, presents the second historical fiction novel in the award-winning Billy Gogan series. Roger’s debut novel has been honored by the Hollywood Book Fest, (Honorable Mention, 2018), the International Book Awards (Finalist, 2017), the New York Book Festival (Honorable Mention, 2018), Reader’s Favorite (Finalist, 2018), Best Book Awards (Finalist, 2018), and the Independent Author Network (Finalist, 2018).

Billy Gogan Gone fer Soldier (Billy Gogan, 2)

United States

Travelers' Tales

In Billy Gogan Gone fer Soldier, Billy Gogan enlists in the U.S. Army, only to be forced to battle a new enemy on the eve of the Mexican-American War. The fearsome and sadistic Sergeant Hoggs’s reign of terror is cut short, however, by a young second lieutenant named Ulysses S. Grant.Billy and his companions are part of the biggest army assembled by the United States in decades, which has been ordered to the banks of the Nueces River to defend Texas. But the army is both tiny, hardly 3,000 combatants, and woefully unprepared for war. The army’s beloved commander Zachary Taylor, known to his bluebellies as Old Zach, slowly whips the army into shape over the winter of 1845-46, as disease ravages officer and soldier alike. In the spring, the army is ordered south to the northern bank of the Rio Bravo. All is not well. The army’s savage discipline causes scores of desperate doughboys to desert and swim across the Rio Bravo to an imagined paradise. War begins badly for the Americans. But Old Zach eventually wins a pair of victories that send the Mexican army scuttling south to Monterrey. Billy is then sent on a mission with the Texas Rangers, which ends in a tragic war crime. Billy Gogan Gone fer Soldier ends on a lonely rooftop as the bloody fighting on the savage first day of the Battle of Monterrey concludes in American defeat.

Billy Gogan Gone fer Soldier

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Higgins, Roger. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Higgins, Roger

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Higgins, Roger. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Billy Gogan, American: A Novel

Billy Gogan Gone fer Soldier (Billy Gogan, 2)

Billy Gogan Gone fer Soldier