The Whitest Flower

Literature & Fiction

Brendan Graham

Genre Fiction

Harpercollins Publisher

The Element of Fire

Widowed by Ireland's Great Famine, Ellen Rua O'Malley flees her native land for Boston and the New World: with her are her two surviving children, Patrick and Mary, and the 'silent girl' whom Ellen has found wandering among the hordes of the dispossessed. In Boston awaits the man who loves her, Lavelle, and the hope and stability which she craves: but is shaking off the Old World, its customs, its language, the answer she believes it to be? Or is she destined to be caught between past and present, between two loves? When a man from her past reappers it seems that her own conflict can only lead to a fall from grace.

The element of fire

HARPER/COLLINS

From the author of the highly acclaimed THE WHITEST FLOWER and its sequel comes a new novel just as vast in scope and powerful storytelling as its predecessors. Three women! Two armies! One enduring love. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, this is a powerful, sweeping novel which explores the themes of forgiveness and longing, and the changing role of women, set free by war from the protection of their men. Ellen Rua, together with her natural daughter Mary and adopted daughter Louisa, helps tend the wounds of the soldiers who have fallen in battle, having left her Irish homeland and the Great Famine behind her. In the killing fields of Virginia, she toils, not realising that her estranged son, Patrick and Lavelle, the husband she desperately seeks, are on opposing sides of the terrible conflict. A book, the Love Elegies of poet John Donne, holds the key to her search, as Patrick, Lavelle and her former lover, Stephen Joyce, likewise seek her out -- and each other -- with tragic repercussions.

Brightest Day the Darkest Night

Set against the backdrop of the Great Famine, this is the story of the triumph of one woman amidst Ireland's despair. It is August 1845. In Dublin's Botanic Gardens, Phytophora infestans is discovered for the first time. The bacteria was to result in the Great Famine, an event of holocaust proportions that affected every man, woman and child in Ireland. England's shame; Ireland's tragedy . Ellen O'Malley is one such victim. She loses her husband, is duped into going to Australia to lead a better life, leaving three of her beloved children behind. She travels aboard a coffin ship and arrives emaciated and ill with her new baby. But Ellen, a woman with an indomitable spirit, rises above her oppression and eventually returns to wreak revenge on those perpetrators of her misery.

Contemporary

Harpercollins Pb

From the author of the acclaimed The Whitest Flower comes the story of an unforgettable heroine, Ellen Rua O'Malley. Widowed by Ireland's Great Famine, she has fled her native land for Boston taking with her her two surviving children, Patrick and Mary, and the 'silent girl' rescued from the hordes of the dispossessed. Boston in the 1850s is the hub of the universe: gateway to America's temples of commerce and learning; liberal, sophisticated -- the very best place in all of the New World for a woman to be. There, awaiting Ellen, are the stability of a new life and Lavelle, the man who loves her. But Ellen, desperate to shake off the Old World, is driven by her own demons to put everything at risk. And Boston, on the brink of Civil War, seems only to mirror her own conflict, to sound the knell of her own battle for survival. A powerful and compelling tale of lives and loves dislocated, The Element of Fire captures emotions as timeless as life. And love.

From the author of the highly acclaimed 'The Whitest Flower' and its sequel comes a new novel just as vast in scope and powerful storytelling as its predecessors. Set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, the powerful new novel from the author of the acclaimed The Whitest Flower and The Element of Fire poignantly explores forgiveness, longing, and the changing role of women set free by war from the protection of their men. Ellen O'Malley, together with her natural daughter Mary and adopted daughter Louisa, helps tend the wounds of the soldiers who have fallen in battle. In the killing fields of Virginia she toils, not realising that her estranged son, Patrick, and Lavelle, the husband she desperately seeks, are on opposing sides of the terrible conflict. Meanwhile, Lavelle and Ellen's former lover, Stephen joyce, likewise seek her out -- and each other -- with tragic repercussions. The inspiring story of Ellen's race against the ravages of war is a tale of great loves, impossible choices and the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.

The Brightest Day, the Darkest Night

Harper

Magna Large Print Books

Our Land in Colour

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brendan Graham. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Brendan Graham

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brendan Graham. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Whitest Flower

The element of fire

Brightest Day the Darkest Night

The Whitest Flower

The Element of Fire

The Brightest Day, the Darkest Night

The Element of Fire

Our Land in Colour