New Release: The Yellow House (Plus Giveaway!)

This novel, The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey, is a satisfying blend of historical fiction and character study.  Set in Northern Ireland in the period between 1905 and 1924, Falvey explores the explosive politics of the time in the context of one woman's life.

Eileen O'Neill believes she has the ideal life with her parents, older brother and younger sister in their yellow house at the base of Slieve Gullion, a mountain in County Armagh.  Their family lives off the glory of the O'Neill family history and celebrates life with friends and music.  It doesn't take long, though, for things to turn for the worse.  Young Lizzie contracts scarlet fever and dies in the local Fever Hospital.  Eileen's mother, pregnant at the time, has a new baby, young Paddy, but loses her mind after the birth.  She soon leaves with Frankie, abandoning Eileen and the baby with their crippled and heartbroken father.  A couple of years later, the political violence makes it to their remote region and Eileen's Da is killed by Ulster Unionists for being Catholic and their yellow house is set on fire.  The story then follows Eileen as she moves in with friends, finds work and love, cares for her brother Paddy and becomes entangled in the very politics that put her in such an unfortunate situation.

This novel definitely took me on a journey through a defining time in Northern Ireland -- and in fact, the creation of the country.  The tension between the Protestants and Catholics is palpable and distressing.  Having this violence occur in the shadow of World War I seems almost unbelievable and yet the history is undeniable.  I appreciate that Falvey has included a short historical summary at the end of the book as I usually turn to research after a book like this one.

The plot of the story is a a bit frustrating.  As a heroine, Eileen can be infuriating, as her Irish temper seems to be the only thing operating her mouth most of the time.  Sometimes it is hard to sympathize with the problems that she has created for herself.  And yet, through everything, you find yourself hoping for the best for her and each setback in her life is still heartbreaking.

I would love to share this novel with one of my readers so if you are interested in winning my copy, please let me know in the comments before the end of day on Tuesday March 16 (be sure to include your e-mail address if it's not in your profile) and I will choose on St. Patrick's Day.  I'm going to offer this one just in the U.S. and Canada since it's a hardcover book.

Update: The winner will receive a brand new copy of their own thanks to the publisher, Hachette Book Group!

Waiting for the politics of hate to end in all nations,
K


Support our site and buy The Yellow House on Amazon or find it at your local library. We received a review copy from the publisher.

Review Postponed: The Case of the Missing Books

Last week I read the first in Ian Sansom's Mobile Library Mystery series, The Case of the Missing Books.  I bought the first three books in the series (the fourth has just been released) because I thought it would be a sure fit for me.  Israel Armstrong, a young London librarian down on his luck, finds an opportunity in Northern Ireland that he doesn't think he can pass up -- until he arrives and finds that the library has been closed and he is expected to operate a mobile library instead.  Even worse, the books are nowhere to be found.  And it also doesn't help that he is a socially awkward Jewish-Irish hybrid who is having trouble understanding the language and ways of the small town he finds himself in.

I wanted to love this book but I didn't.  Some of the characters grew on me by the end of the book but sadly the main character never did.  And yet there was just enough in this book to make me curious enough to want to read the next one in the series.  I need to see if Israel grows into a character that I will want to keep following through more mysteries.  So I have decided to reserve judgment on the Mobile Library Mysteries until I have read at least one more book in the series.  The reviews seem to get slightly better as the series progresses and I hope my opinion improves as well!

Giving this series another try because I want to,
K


Support our site and buy The Case of the Missing Books on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.

"Captain Everard Gault wounded the boy in the right shoulder on the night of June the twenty-first, nineteen twenty-one."

I decided to read William Trevor's The Story of Lucy Gault because it was on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. This book begins in Ireland in the 1920s and extends to presumably somewhat modern times with the brief mention of cell phones and internet.

The story begins when Lucy Gault is a child. Her parents decide to move after foiling an arson attempt at their home. Lucy doesn't understand why they have to move and doesn't want to leave her childhood home and so she attempts to run away. She gets hurt in the woods and can't return home but in the meantime her parents find some discarded clothes by the ocean and think that she has drowned herself in her grief at leaving everything she loves. Her parents move away to the continent with no forwarding address and when she is eventually found, she returns home to an empty, boarded-up house. We then follow Lucy, her parents and also one of the arsonists who loses his reason and thinks that he actually did set fire to the house and that the young girl died in the fire. All of these lives are affected by tragedies that never happened.

This book read a lot like a short story. A very long time period was covered in less than 250 pages but I didn't feel like anything was missing. It was a good study in emotion, blame and coping and did a good job of showing the different points of view and effects of a single choice. I will definitely read some other books by William Trevor.

Obeying the "before you die" list,
K


Buy The Story of Lucy Gault on Amazon or find it at your local library.