Sam Sedgman

A beautiful perfect moving read Cecelia Ahern author of PS I Love YouThe outstanding novel from the Carnegie Medal winning former Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan thought provoking and incredibly moving it explores love and family during The Great Hunger Ireland 1846 Nell is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of the Big House Once she loved school and books and dreaming But there s not much choice of work when the land grows food that rots in the earth Now she is scrubbing peeling washing sweeping for Sir Philip Wicken the man who owns her home her family s land their crops everything His dogs are always well fed even as famine sets in Upstairs in the Big House where Nell is forbidden to enter is Johnny Browning newly arrived from England the young nephew who will one day inherit it all And as hunger and disease run rampant all around them a spark of life and hope catches light when Nell and Johnny find each other This is a love story and the story of a people being torn apart This is a powerful and unforgettable novel from the phenomenally talented Sarah Crossan A beautifully written tightly observed novel The Times Irresistibly emotive The Sunday Times Thrums with longing beauty loss and strength Katya Balen autho