The 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.
