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    Grace: WINNER OF THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR
    Unavailable
    Grace: WINNER OF THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR
    Unavailable
    Grace: WINNER OF THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR
    Ebook408 pages6 hours

    Grace: WINNER OF THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR

    By Paul Lynch

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    WINNER OF THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2018

    SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION & THE WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING 2018

    SELECTED AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 BY THE GUARDIAN AND ESQUIRE

     

    Winter is closing in and Ireland is in the grip of famine. Early one October morning, Grace's mother snatches her from sleep, brutally cuts her hair and tells her: ‘You are the strong one now.’ 

     

    Her mother fits her up in men's clothes and casts her out, as she is no longer safe at home. With her younger brother Colly in tow, the two set off on a remarkable journey against the looming shadow of their country's darkest hour.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOneworld Publications
    Release dateSep 7, 2017
    ISBN9781786073068
    Unavailable
    Grace: WINNER OF THE KERRY GROUP IRISH NOVEL OF THE YEAR
    Author

    Paul Lynch

    Paul Lynch is the author of the novels Red Sky in Morning, The Black Snow, Grace and Beyond the Sea. Grace won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2018 and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing 2018. The Black Snow won France's Prix Libr'à Nous for Best Foreign Novel and was a finalist for the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (Best Foreign Book Prize). He lives in Dublin with his wife and two children. His website is www.paullynchwriter.com

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    Reviews for Grace

    3.5/5

    38 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is the story of Grace and her younger brother as they trek aimlessly through Ireland during the potato famine years merely trying to survive. Of course they meet numerous characters along the way -some good, some unsavory. The book is difficult to read using words and expressions in archaic language and Irish/English brogues. This is a melancholy story as Grace really has no ultimate goal. Three hundred plus pages of wandering the countryside with frankly not much happening. Others have reviewed the novel favorably but I just was not feeling it.
    • 3/5
      I decided to read "Grace" by Paul Lynch after a friend recommended the book to me. She knew that I have always been interested in the Irish Potato Famine and thought I would enjoy this book.Grace is forced to fend for herself after her mother suddenly drags her out of bed, chops off her hair and declares that "You're the strong one now". What follows is the harrowing and often heart wrenching journey Grace takes in her struggle to survive. The book is well written and brings to life the struggles people must have had at that horrible time in Irish history. The beauty of the novel is the lyrical prose with every sentence. I received a copy of the book from Little, Brown, and Company via Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      The great Potato Famine has begun in Ireland. A young girl's mother drags her out of bed in the middle of the night, hacks off her hair with a knife, gives her a pair of trousers and some binding cloth and shoved her onto the road with the word, "You be the strong one now." Grace is supposed to find work dressed as a boy and send her wages home. Her younger brother, Colley, sneaks after her, bound for adventure. Instead, tragedy after tragedy ensues as the entire nation falls into starvation and despair.So, is this a bleak novel? Yes, most certainly. But it's saved by moments of humor, by Grace's perseverance, and by Lynch's lyrical descriptions of a land both beautiful and horrific and a people determined to survive. The image that sticks with me most is the long line of people, often shoeless and in rags, placing one foot in front of the other, believing that to keep moving is to keep alive and that something better might be just down the icy road. The things Graces sees and the things she must do--well, we should consider ourselves lucky that they aren't the components of our daily lives. And it never seems to stop: even when she finds herself tossed onto a cart collecting the dead, Grace isn't allowed to die. She is 'resurrected' by the leader of a questionable sect comprised only of penitent women. And soon she is on the road again, trying to make her way back home to Donegal. I've left out the horrific details of Grace's journey--too many spoilers for anyone choosing to read this book. And I won't reveal the ending, except to say that after two years, the crops come back, so, you can imagine, things start to get a little better. (That's just historical fact: if everyone had starved to death, there'd be no Ireland as we know it today.) Despite it's bleakness, there is much to admire here, both in the characters and the writing.
    • 2/5
      When I chose to request this book I thought the premise sounded pretty interesting.However, in reading the book, the writer's style, the slow pace and the difficulty in understanding what these characters were saying had me giving up on it very early in the book. Unfortunately, I decided that I didn't really care enough to try and "trudge - as in several feet of mud" through the book to learn about Grace's journey.Thanks to Little, Brown and Company and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      Whimsical and lilting in a way only an Irish author can be. A transformation that felt like it was transforming me. A time when there was nothing, especially food, but thoughts were plenty. Haunting for the main character and the reader. And the Pookas, we can't forget the Pookas or the threat of them. I was instantly time-traveled back to my great grandmother's lap as she passed on her wisdom of the Pookas. On an even more personal, yet still reading related, note: Why is it that I can't stand literary fiction unless it is from the hands and mind of an Irish author?If this is your first introduction to Paul Lynch may I suggest Red Sky in Morning.Grace is heartbreaking. I hate to think of what my ancestors did in Ireland to survive the potato famine since a few of them didn't come to the U.S. until well afterward. I wouldn't have had the strength that Grace had, heck I know I can hardly deal with my first world problems now. She is or was something special and Lynch's ability to make a character real is something special too since I just referred to her like she was real.
    • 4/5
      Set during the potato famine in Ireland during the years between 1845 and 1852, this novel tells the story of a young girl named Grace and her experiences trying to survive during desperate times. Her mother shaves her head in order for her to pass as a boy and sends her off to protect her from a man named Boggs and in hopes she can find work and avoid starvation.Grace’s younger brother Colley decides to go along with her against his mother’s wishes. Colley doesn’t survive long after leaving home, but he stays with Grace in a ghostly way throughout her journey.This was an intense and disheartening story, but one that is riveting. Paul Lynch managed to bring the suffering of the Irish to life in a profound way. His writing is haunting, but at times I found it was too much.As Grace travels the Irish countryside in search of better conditions, her starvation brings her to the point of death. Reading the story, it felt as if Grace was in a continual dream-state, with much of it feeling more like a nightmare. Luckily for Grace, her story ended with a hopeful and happy future. Such was not the case for so many others in Ireland during that time.The book does have some crude language and some violence, but for the most part it is a somber look at a very sad time in the history of Ireland. Thank you to NetGalley & Little, Brown & Company for the opportunity to read an advanced copy and give my honest review.
    • 5/5
      2 million people died in The Irish Potato Famine when blight destroyed three years of potato crops between 1845 to 1851.In his novel Grace, Paul Lynch recreates Ireland during the famine. The writing is gorgeous, the protagonist, Grace, memorable, the descriptions of what she experiences while on the road crushing.Think of a journey story set in a Dystopian world, such as The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Consider that the story is history, that the starvation, despair, disease, and the ever-present threat of death are historical.Realize that government and the wealthy could have alleviated the suffering. It is a disturbing realization of how those of means and comfort justify their selfish self-interest. Then consider the great need in the world today, in America, in your own hometown, and know that nothing has really changed. We still turn a blind eye and hold to 'truths' about self-reliance and just deserts.Grace's mother provides a cottage for her children through an arrangement with Boggs, who visits her as payment for his largess. But as Grace nears puberty, Boggs notices the girl. One night Grace is roused and her mother shears off Grace's hair and orders her to dress in men's clothing. The next day her mother insists she eats a rare meal of meat and orders her out of the house to find work as a man, hopefully to return with full pockets.Confused and unwilling, Grace hangs around and is joined by her younger brother Colly. Colly instructs Grace on manliness, how to smoke a pipe to damp the hunger, and his chatter fills the void. They seek out empty huts or animal sheds for shelter, shivering in the cold. After an accident takes Colly, his voice and comments are still heard by Grace, become a part of her, and she answers back in whispers.Grace journeys from town to town, picking up work where she can. She mimics men's behavior while noticing the swelling of her breasts. She passes through villages where the starving hawk their shreds of clothing and emaciated children stand listless. She finds herself with rough company, thieves, men who have detected her sex and follow her, and finally Bart, who becomes her protector."This is no way to live."Bart and Grace travel across the country, to people and places from his past, hoping to find work, to learn there is nothing left of the Ireland he had known."Don't you see what is going on around you? The have-it-alls and well-to-doers who don't give a fuck what happens to the ordinary people," Bart tells Grace. "The people are living off hope. Hope is the lie they want you to believe in. It is hope that carries you along. Keeps you in your place. Keeps you down. Let me tell you something. I do not hope. I do not hope for anything in the least because to hope is to depend on others. And so I will make my own luck. I believe there are not rules anymore. We are truly on our own in all this." And at the last, "The gods have abandoned us, that's how I figure it. It is time to be your own god."Grace is nearly dead when she is rescued by a disturbed religious cult leader, then must find the strength to escape her rescuer. She returns to find her family home deserted. The book ends with Grace, age nineteen, the famine over, pregnant and living with a man she trusts, with hope for the future.Lynch has accomplished something remarkable in this historical novel, for he not only has created a memorable protagonist and a story of growing up, not only a vivid picture of Ireland during The Great Hunger, but he has given readers a book that raises our awareness of suffering and how, in the past and in the present, every one of means who turns away is responsible.I found this one of the most memorable novels I have read this year.I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
    • 2/5
      Grace is the oldest in her family just as the Irish famine is beginning. Her mother in desperation, cuts her hair and sends her out as a boy. The rest of the book is of her adventures passing as a boy once with a group of drovers driving cattle. Then she meets a young man Bart who she travels with.The story gets weirder and weird as Grace is constantly talking about her dead brother. Then as Bart dies, there is a sort of stream of consciousness followed by four completely black pages - gimicky in myh opinion. Not a favorite