Where the Heart Should Be

 Where the Heart Should Be

Reviewed By  Grasshopper2       September 11, 2024

 

Author  Sarah Crossan

Distributor:      Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN:                 978-1526666598
Publisher:         Bloomsbury YA
Release Date:   March 2024  

   Website:   https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/where-the-heart-should-be-9781526666598

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Where The Heart Should Be is the book that you read and suddenly find that you are holding your breath. The language is so beautiful, so simple and yet so powerful. The style of free verse adds enormously to the unspoken emotion.

The story is predictable, as we know what the potato famine in Ireland meant but here is strand upon strand of story from each character showing the futility, the injustice, the courage and love during this horrendous time.

This story begins in July, 1846. Young Nell arrives at the Big House and taps on the door. She has been asked to work in the kitchen. Maggie opens the door and slaps Nell hard across the face.

She complains that Nell is wet and dirty. This is because Nell has been running through the rain and mud to get there. Thus the relationship between the people at the Big house and the tenants is established.

The potato famine has taken a hold of the crops and the smell of the black, slimy, rotten vegetable permeates the whole area. There is love, though.

Nell’s parents have created a loving home, and the Lord of the Manor has a nephew come to stay. Johnny is not like other members of the family and befriends Nell. He also feeds a beggar who came to the door begging for food. The man was being beaten by the servant, but much to the shock of all, Johnny carries the beggar into the kitchen and gives him a bowl of broth.

As Nell watches the dogs gobbling meat from the floor the contrasts couldn’t be sharper. Meat that would feed her family! Each aspect of the story, the political uprising, the love story and the challenges faced is addressed and stated.

“It is hard to tell a love story

and also the story of a people

being torn apart.”

Fiction, Historical