
SELECTED AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 BY THE GUARDIAN & ESQUIREEarly one October morning Grace's mother snatches her from sleep & brutally cuts off her hair declaring You are the strong one now' With winter close at hand & Ireland already suffering Grace is no longer safe at home & so her mother outfits her in men's clothing & casts her out When her younger brother Colly follows after her the two set off on a remarkable journey in the looming shadow of their country's darkest hour The broken land they pass through reveals untold suffering as well as unexpected beauty To survive Grace must become a boy a bandit a penitent & finally a woman
- all the while afflicted by inner voices that arise out of what she has seen & what she has lost Told in bold & lyrical language by an author who has been called 'one of his generation's very finest novelists' (Ron Rash) Grace is an epic coming-of-age novel & a poetic evocation of the Irish famine as it has never been written