Grace

Paul Lynch's 'Grace' is a marvellous demonstration of the power of the novel in illustrating the notorious Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s responsible for a massive social blight triggering emigration to America and elsewhere. The writer focuses upon the fate of the eponymous heroine : a nine year old girl booted out of her impoverished rural household by her mother who adds to Grace's trauma by hacking off her daughter's girlish locks in the hope of improving her chances for casual labour by passing as a boy. There is an otherworldliness in Lynch's depiction of Grace's odyssey through the hellscape of the Irish heartland, for the character's vision of her experiences seems to oscillate between unbearable realism and somewhat mystical contact with another realm where ghosts and old pagan presences both haunt and encourage the girl in her tenacious flight towards a seemingly unattainable decent existence. A harrowing yet hypnotic read.