The novels of Michael Collins are thrilling stories of the Irish American experience in the past 40 years. Emerald Underground is a brilliant novel highlighting the fate of the thousands of young Irish who have fled to America to escape grinding poverty, the violence of the troubles, and in many cases, the law itself. Immigration brokers preyed upon these young people and most were forced to live as as illegal immigrants in America. The character in the novel, Liam, is forced to leave Ireland under these circumstances. In the first chapter, called Purgatory, he says:

"Of course, there was no going home. Once you did the shite I'd done, once you never finished your leaving cert, you got your walking papers and got the f-- out of Ireland. Immigration was the name of the game. England, Australia, Canada. Sneak into America. anywhere but stay at home."

The novel is both thrilling and literate with plenty of black humour. It is marvelous fiction. ( )