I have visited Ireland and vividly remember the shock I felt when standing before a sculpture in the streets of Dublin depicting a group of people and the suffering endured during the potato famine. The Great Famine was a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. This novel which is my first by Niall details the tragedy that falls upon one family during this period of Irish history and told in the most luscious prose. Read it and weep. I certainly did but feel enriched by the experience. 

The Fall of Light

An epic tale which centers on the Foley family in the years leading up to the Great Famine in Ireland, those years during it and the diaspora that followed, as many fled to other countries in the hopes to save what was left of their lives. Despite being under British rule, the suffering of the Irish was largely ignored, and Queen Victoria became known as the  Famine Queen , but not because she devoted herself to offering aid. As a result, approximately one-quarter of the pre-famine population of Ireland was gone - over one million people in Ireland died because of the famine, and another million emigrated to other lands, half of that number to America, where they weren’t exactly welcomed. Despite the background of this story, there are lovely, and loving moments, with a story shared through some lovely prose.   This quintessentially Irish tale follows the family of Francis Foley, his wife Emer, formerly Emer O’Suilleabhain, and their four sons. As a tenant farmer of an estate owned but not inhabited by the owner, Francis not only has responsibility for tending to the land, but also has access to the estate. Inside the manor house, he has come to appreciate the view of the heavens offered by a telescope, and one night he leaves with the telescope. Knowing that it won’t be long until its absence is discovered, he knows he must escape quickly, leaving with his sons, and leaving without Emer as she has already left, angry with him at putting them in jeopardy.   Francis, accompanied by his twins Finbar and Finan, along with his other sons Tomas and Teige, runs off to escape the repercussions he knows will follow, and to find his wife. It isn’t long before the boys become separated from their father, believing that he has drowned, they eventually will end up separated from each other. Francis, however, is rescued by monks, although he has lost his telescope.    ’”He is gone,” Tomas said.  The breath of the horses misted and faded. They sat crouched forward like ones beneath a burden. The landscape thereabouts was a green and rumpled stillness. The silence grew heavy. Then Finbar said, “He is gone to America,” and laughed a small laugh that faded away.  Finan looked at Tomas to see what he would say, but he said nothing at all. They watched the waters. “He is not,” Teige said at last, “he is become a swan.”   The stories of each are shared with a slowly mounting hope from both the characters and the reader that a reunion in some way will occur. Their sorrow of being apart is palpably present throughout, and the not knowing of where each is, if they’ve survived, if they will ever meet again is often on their minds, and their struggles to come to terms with the unlikeliness of a homecoming dwindling.    ’And three years passed. ‘The stars rose and fell across the sky and told their timeless stories. But of Francis Foley and his sons in this time there is little recounted. They are like ones that have slipped inside a pause in the story. As if nothing good can be told and it is better for the silence to enfold them.’   An emotional, epic story of a country, people and time where the daily death toll is climbing, and yet so much of the focus is on love. Romantic love, familial love, love of country, love of life that is so beautifully shared that this is truly a love story.

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