A powerful novel that sweeps the reader back to the great Irish famine - a time of courage, passion and political upheaval.

When Katy O''Donnell marries handsome, swaggering, hard-drinking Jamsie O''Hara she is as fresh and filled with dreams as her mistress, Catherine Kilgoran, who is marrying in silk and lace up at the big house.

The story of two families whose fortunes are inextricably linked, and of a small, close-knit community bound together by tradition and by tragedy, it is also a tender and truthful portrayal of a marriage and of a woman whose indomitable spirit remains unbowed.