Across the Bitter Sea
By Eilís Dillon
Across the Bitter Sea is a compulsively readable novel in the great tradition of the historical saga, set in Ireland.
The heroine is Alice, a passionate woman of peasant ancestry. When a landowner, Samuel, falls in love with her, Alice’s mother agrees to the union. She has had to send two of her sons off across the bitter sea to America in search of prosperity, and knows this could also have been Alice’s fate.
In the turbulent years that follow, Alice sees the unfolding political events from both sides. She follows the career of a charismatic man of her own class, Morgan Connelly, whom she loves, and ultimately Alice’s fortunes and those of her children are inextricably linked to the Irish Movement in this expansive and absorbing novel of ideals and love.
Praise for Across the Bitter Sea:
‘A quite remarkable novel… a huge panorama of suffering, frustration and bitterness’ – Sunday Times
‘This is as important and as fine a novel as has come out of Ireland in many a long year’ – Cork Examiner
‘A splendid novel …’ – Daily Mirror
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