A New York Times Notable Book and "thoroughly gripping" historical mystery: On a ship packed with Irish immigrants, one passenger is a killer (People).
In the bitter winter of 1847, leaving an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, some of them optimistic, many more of them desperate. Among them are a maid with a devastating secret, the bankrupt Lord Merridith accompanied by his wife and childrenâ??and a killer stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution.
This journey will see many lives end, while others begin anew. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, shirked responsibilities regretted too late, and profound relationships shockingly revealed. In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the ship sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go.
"O'Connor's luscious book brews the suspense of a thriller with the scope and passion of a Victorian novelâ??seasoned in authentic historical detail and served up in language that is equal parts lyrical and gritty." â??Booklist
"Engrossing . . . will hold historical fiction fans rapt." â??Publishers Weekly… (más)
[The Famine] is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful and rebellious country; an indolent and un-self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering from an affliction of God's providence. Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury, 1847 (Knighted, 1848, for overseeing famine relief)
England is truly a great public criminal. England! All England! ... She must be punished; that punishment will, as I believe, come upon her by and through Ireland; and so Ireland will be avenged ... The Atlantic ocean be never so deep as the hell which shall belch down on the oppressors of my race. John Mitchel, Irish nationalist, 1856
THE MISSING LINK: A creature manifestly between the gorilla and the Negro is to be met with in some of the lowest districts of London and Liverpool by adventurous explorers. It comes from Ireland, whence it has contrived to migrate; it belongs in fact to a tribe of Irish savages: the lowest species of Irish Yahoo. When conversing with its kind it talks a sort of gibberish. It is, moreover, a climbing animal, and may sometimes be seen ascending a ladder laden with a hod of bricks. Punch magazine, London, 1862
Providence sent the potato blight but England made the Famine ... We are sick of the canting talk of those who tell us that we must not blame the British people for the crimes of their rulers against Ireland. We do blame them. James Connolly, co-leader of the Easter Rising against British Rule, 1916
All night long he would walk the ship, from bow to stern, from dusk until quarterlight, that sticklike limping man from Connemara with the drooping shoulders and ash-coloured clothes.
A New York Times Notable Book and "thoroughly gripping" historical mystery: On a ship packed with Irish immigrants, one passenger is a killer (People).
In the bitter winter of 1847, leaving an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, some of them optimistic, many more of them desperate. Among them are a maid with a devastating secret, the bankrupt Lord Merridith accompanied by his wife and childrenâ??and a killer stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution.
This journey will see many lives end, while others begin anew. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, shirked responsibilities regretted too late, and profound relationships shockingly revealed. In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the ship sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go.
"O'Connor's luscious book brews the suspense of a thriller with the scope and passion of a Victorian novelâ??seasoned in authentic historical detail and served up in language that is equal parts lyrical and gritty." â??Booklist
"Engrossing . . . will hold historical fiction fans rapt." â??Publishers Weekly
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(3.88)
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Un thriller histórico con gran potencial comercial y gran rigor literario.
En 1847 el Estrella del Mar zarpa hacia Nueva York desde una Irlanda desgarrada por la injusticia y la hambruna. A bordo viajan centenares de emigrantes que oscilan entre el optimismo y la desesperación. Entre ellos, una sirvienta que esconde un secreto abrumador, el arruinado Lord Merridith con su mujer y sus hijos, un aspirante a novelista, un misterioso compositor de baladas revolucionarias... Y un asesino ávido por consumar una venganza ante de que concluyan los veintiséis dÃas que dura la travesÃa. Una apasionante intriga histórica. (