Ireland, 1846. A boy on a life-changing journey which lives in the mind long after the final page. It is 1846, the height of the Great Hunger, and young Fergus is forced to grow up fast. Following the destruction of his home, he loses not only his family but everything he has ever loved. So begins an epic journey from innocence to experience that takes him from the west coast of Ireland to the docks and bordellos of Liverpool, and across the Atlantic. Along his journey he will meet bandit chiefs and railway navvies, ‘pearl boys’ and daring girls, and the willful Molly, who will teach him the ways of the world.
The Reviews
A top-notch historical novel: dramatic, wincingly violent, tender and extremely well-written.Guardian
This is a novel about hunger, literal and spiritual: Behrensâs prose is so evocative, you can almost taste it.
Literary Review
Paperback
400 pages
Price: £8.99
ISBN: 9781847670854 Other editions
Hardback
The Law of Dreams, Peter Behrens's first novel, won the 2006 Governor General's Literary Award, Canada's oldest and most prestigious book prize. Behrens was a Fellow of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. He is the author of a collection of stories, Night Driving. Behrens was born in Montreal and lives on the coast of Maine with his wife and son.
