The Element of Fire [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Brendan Graham (Author), Mary O'Hagan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Reviews for The Whitest Flower: 'Irish history is like a gold seam for historical novelists. Occasionally a nugget is produced and Graham's is one of those.' Ireland on Sunday. 'The guy can write. Lyrical music. Musical prose.' Sunday Independent. 'A remarkable and emotional odyssey which uses the great Irish Famine and the subsequent diaspora as the subject matter for a novel of immense potency.' Irish Post. 'This huge sweep of a novel will whisk you from Ireland to Australia and Canada.' Woman's Realm. 'This is truly an extraordinary book, an epic in the true sense. Ellen Rua, the central character, is clearly discernible, through her struggles, her journeys, her ultimate overcoming of her sufferings, as the personification of Ireland. She is the keeper of its culture, its music and language, its spirituality. She is its voice, even when the impossible choices which faced people at the time force her to be complicit in the destruction of her own language ... Ellen is the quest for Ireland's spiritual soul tossed between the old and the new religions. She is also the resurrection of the new Ireland rising out of starvation and disease, the embodiment of the hope that kept our people going.' An Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, T.D.. 'The Whitest Flower is a disturbing, challenging, and rewarding read, which puts our history in context and through Ellen Rua O'Malley reminds us of the beauty of a pilgram life well lived.' Fr. Brian Darcy, Sunday World --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Brendan Graham's first novel The Whitest Flower was published in 1998 to international praise. Born in Tipperary in 1945, he now lives in Dublin. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Magna Large Print Books (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1859035426
• ISBN-13: 978-1859035429
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad and moving, June 24, 2010

By 

W. van Hooft (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Element of Fire H/B (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book because of its informative, historical storyline.
Anyone who only wants a book with a happy ending better not reads this book, it would be too "realistic" for your taste.
However: it has given me a fair idea of what the Irish went through not so long ago; only 150/160 years. It has made me understand better when certain feelings get expressed, sometimes.