Reminiscent of great historical fi ction like the novels of Colleen McCullough and Frank Delaney, GALWAY BAY is a poignant family saga set against the backdrop of the Great Irish Starvation.

Honora loves Michael Kelly from the moment she sees this handsome rover on a summer's morning in 1839. The courtship and marriage of this fisherman's daughter and wandering piper echo the tales of Irish myth. Disaster strikes when greed and a callous government turn the failure of the potato crop-the people's food-into the Great Starvation that will kill one million. Michael dies. Honora vows their children will live. She and her gutsy sister Maire escape Ireland, joining the two million Irish fleeing to America, victims rescuing themselves. Settling in the frontier town of Chicago, these lone women and their eight children get to work building "the city of the century." They find Michael's brother Patrick, who's brought Ireland's struggle for freedom to the US. Turbulent times continue. Patrick and five of the boys enlist in Chicago's Irish Brigade to fi ght the Civil War, sometimes against fellow Irishmen on the Confederate side. They battle the Chicago fi re. Peace comes to Honora when, embracing the love that's grown between herself and Patrick, they marry. GALWAY BAY tells an amazing American story-a new look at the heroic ancestors of today's 44 million Irish Americans.

Books recounting the Irish experience are extremely popular as seen by the bestselling success of Maeve Binchy's Whitehorn Woods (Knopf, 3/07), Frank Delaney's Ireland (Avon, 2/06), Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (Scribner, 1996), and the novels of Edna O'Brien. Mary Pat Kelly, a descendant of Great Starvation survivors, has done extensive research on Ireland, and early Chicago, imbuing GALWAY BAY with great authenticity. In the author's colorful and eclectic life, she has written and directed award-winning documentaries on Irish subjects, as well as the dramatic feature Proud. She's been an associate producer on Good Morning America and Saturday Night Live, written books on Martin Scorsese, World War II, and Bosnia, and a novel based on her experiences as a former nun-Special Intentions. She is a frequent contributor to Irish America Magazine and has a PhD in English and Irish literature.