Kirjahaku

The follow-up to The Pawnbroker’s Reward, his bestselling 2021 novel, Declan O’Rourke’s second instalment sees the inhabitants of Macroom and its surroundings landed squarely into the eye of the storm that is 1847, during Ireland’s Great Famine. After the landslide of their descent through 1846, Pádraig and Cáit Ua Buachalla awaken on the outskirts of Macroom to a new year fraught with the worst of weather, worse luck and a new level of problems that compound their desperate struggle to survive. In the heart of town, in the absence of her husband the pawnbroker, Paulellen Creed struggles to stay afloat. Follow this heart-wrenching story of tragedy and human beauty as, through the voices of Macroom in 1847, we hear a whisper from oblivion.

1846. County Cork. On the barren outskirts of Macroom, Pádraig and Cáit ua Buachalla face a perilous winter after the failure of their blighted crop. At the centre of town, pawnbroker Cornelius Creed sees the poor in their darkest hour, his shop often being their last stop on the way to the workhouse. Their stories, and those of many others, are woven into a powerful account of the Great Famine’s grip on a single Irish town. At once epic and intimate, this meticulously researched, multi-layered work from one of Ireland’s best-loved songwriter’s delivers a rich, lyrical debut based on real lives and events from this defining moment in Ireland’s history. 'A powerful and gripping piece of writing from a born storyteller.' Joseph O’Connor ‘The narrative is just like his singing voice, full of powerful strength and compassion.’ Michael Harding ‘Lucid, lovingly-written and lyrical.’ Professor Christine Kinealy