Grace

Early one October morning, Grace’s mother snatches her from sleep and brutally cuts off her hair, declaring, ‘You are the strong one now.’ With winter close at hand and Ireland already suffering, Grace is no longer safe at home. And so her mother outfits Grace in men’s clothing and casts her out. When her younger brother Colly follows after her, the two set off on a life-changing odyssey in the looming shadow of the Great Famine. 

To survive, Grace will become a boy, a bandit, a penitent and finally, a woman. A meditation on love, life and destiny, Grace is an epic coming-of-age novel, and a poetic evocation of the Irish famine as it has never been written.

‘A beautifully written novel, with a haunting story and deep echoes of the Ancients’ Edna O’Brien, author of The Little Red Chairs

‘Lynch makes the page sing like the old masters’ Philipp Meyer, author of The Son

'Lynch’s wonderful third novel follows a teenage girl through impoverished Ireland at the height of the Great Famine…Lynch’s powerful, inventive language intensifies the poignancy of the woe that characterizes this world of have-nothings struggling to survive.’  Publishers Weekly (starred review)

‘Grace is fierce wonder, a journey that moves with the same power and invention as the girl at its center. What Paul Lynch brings to these pages is more than mere talent--it's a searing commitment to story and soul' Affinity Konar, author of Mischling

‘A mesmerizing, incandescent work of art. It’s all things together – a tragedy, an adventure, a romance, a coming-of-age, a searing exposition of historical truths; an interrogation of the nature of time and existence. Above all it’s a perfect story' Donal Ryan, Booker-nominated author of The Spinning Heart