In the spellbinding tradition of Frank Delaney, Colleen McCullough, and Maeve Binchy comes a poignant historical family saga that Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frank McCourt calls "pure magic," set against the backdrop of the Great Irish Starvation, shedding brilliant light on the ancestors of today’s 44 million Irish Americans.
In the 1839 Ireland of
GALWAY BAY by Mary Pat Kelly (Grand Central Publishing) Hardcover; Feb. 9, 2009: $26.99), young Honora Keeley and Michael Kelly wed and start a family, selling their crops to pay exorbitant rents and depending on the potato to survive.
When blight destroys the potatoes three times in four years, a callous government and uncaring landlords turn a natural disaster into The Great Starvation that will leave one million dead. Honora and Michael’s family join two million other Irish refugees in one of the greatest rescues in human history, victims saving themselves, the Irish Emigration to America. Danger and hardship await them upon landing in Chicago. Honora and her sister Marie watch their children as they transform Chicago from a frontier town to "City of the Century," fight the Civil War, and enlist in the cause of Ireland’s freedom.
GALWAY BAY is the story of one Irish family’s epic journey, capturing the tragedy and triumph of the Irish-American experience. Their journey recalls all the people forced from their homes who found victory in survival. It is a story of people living through incredibly turbulent times who have everything taken away from them, a story of what someone will do to overcome adversity, and how they find strength when circumstances demand it.
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