Book excerpt: In the mid-nineteenth century, famine hits Ireland, threatening an entire population & jeopardizing the future of two young lovers. The people fear they will be cleared from the land, losing their homes & all that they own. Word arrives that the landlord will load them onto ships, sending all to America. Lovers Mary & Michael are separated & Mary is packed into the steerage of the aging freighter Virginius. Michael promises he will send for her when the famine ends. But within months, news is sent that the Virginius has gone down & all aboard her lost. The people riot & threaten revenge, spurring brutal punitive punishment. The landlord is murdered & the story spread that the lover of a girl on the Virginius had killed him. Michael flees Ireland for America, where he falls prey to the sharps on the waterfront, left with little hope. He takes up with the unsavory wharf rats. Then one night, he stumbles upon the Virginius. Mary does survive the crossing to Grosse Ile, the quarantine station in the St. Lawrence. She, like thousands of others would eventually attempt the walk from Montreal to New York City. Michael, seeing the Virginius afloat, would turn towards Quebec. Neither would make their destinations yet fate would bring them together. The Blackthorn Scribe - Publishers, P.O. Box 31, Whitewater, WI 53190 (262) 473-1172, Email: [email protected]