In 184549, the potato crop in Ireland failed and threw Tara OBrien, the main character, and Ireland into terrifying fear, the crop being their main livelihood. Her mothers illness forces Tara to obtain a paying seamstress position in the north. She meets a British officer, Thomas Litchfield, who falls in love with her. She accepts his dinner invitations since she is close to starving but finally stops seeing him. He vows to love her until he dies. Her mother dies. Father Boyle, her mothers true but forbidden love, performs the burial rite. The Britishs actions and enmity towards the Irish peak. The famine keeps continuing another year, bringing starvation, disease, and fever. John McGuire, leader of the Irish rebellion, visits Monaghan, requesting volunteers to steal food from the British ships. He and Tara fall passionately in love and marry. The novel ends ironically with a twist concerning Tara, Thomas Litchfield, and John McGuire.

An anthology of sixteen short stories about family, friendship, and love features contributions from popular Irish women authors.

Ireland. The early twentieth century. Two girls on the cusp of womanhood. A nation on the brink of war. Read their story — and seewhy JOJO Moyes says that "Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore." Born on the ninth day of the ninth month in the year 1900, Kitty Deverill grows up in Castle Deverill, on the sunning green ghills of West Cork, Ireland — the same place her ancestors have always dwelled. She isn't fully Irish, as the son of the local veterinarian likes to tease her; but this doesn't stop Kitty and Jack O'Leary from falling in love... Bridie Doyle, daughter to Castle Deverill's cook, cherishes her friendship with Kitty. Yet she can’t help dreaming of someday having wealth, having glamour, having... more. And when she discovers Kitty's darkest secret, Bridie finds herself growing to resent the girl in the castle who seems to have it all. As Irish and British forces collide in Southern Ireland, Jack enlists to fight — and Kitty throws herself into the cause for Irish liberty, running messages and ammunition between the rebels. But , her allegiance to her family and her friends will soon be tested... and when Castle Deverill comes under attack, the only home and life she’s ever known are threatened. A powerful story of love, loyalty, and friendship, The Girl in the Castle is an exquisitely written novel set against the magical, captivating landscape of Ireland — perfect for fans of DOWNTON ABBEY and KATE MORTON. Previously published as The Girl in the Castle

The New York Times bestselling tale of heartbreak and hope from the author of An Irish Country Doctor

A collection of short stories by Cecelia Adher and 18 other writers.

You have to read closely so as not to miss significant clues in these tightly coiled stories by Katherine Anne Porter Prize-winner Johnston (Never So Green), who ventures deeply into the consciousness of Midwesterners to unearth old tensions and buried animosities. In Water, he balances a marvelously multilayered plot involving a widowed mother of now grown twin boys (one healthy, one not) who recognizes how her protectiveness of her sons--even if one commits a horrible crime--supersedes the ties she holds to her past. Dirt Men finds Buddy Jr., the son of a local excavating entrepreneur, returned home in disgrace from the Colorado college where he was teaching and trapped within the intersection of his past and his hubris when the dismembered body of a woman is found in an auto salvage lot. In Things Go Missing, Johnston enters the mind of a young woman burglar whose seemingly senseless thefts (such as her shrink's autographed Michael Jordan poster) allows her to connect finally with someone, despite the pain she inflicts. These beautifully rendered tales deliver an emotional wallop.

While women in modern Western society have spent the last century fighting for equal rights, women in ancient Ireland were accorded legal equality with men. Under the Brehon Laws women had the right to own property, rule territories, seek an education, and sue for divorce. Celtic women were also warriors, frequently taking up arms and marching into battle with their brothers and husbands.