The Law of Dreams: A Novel

Overview

Driven from the only home he has known during Ireland's Great Hunger of 1847, Fergus O'Brien makes the harrowing journey from County Clare to America, traveling with bold girls, pearl boys, navvies, and highwaymen. Along the way, Fergus meets his three passionate loves-Phoebe, Luke, and Molly-vivid, unforgettable characters, fresh and willful.

Based on Peter Behrens's own family history, The Law of Dreams is lyrical, emotional, and thoroughly extraordinary-a searing tale of ardent struggle and ultimate perseverance.

Editorial Reviews

Screenwriter Behrens follows his 1987 story collection, Night Driving, with an ambitious epic that follows a hapless wee lad from the rotten potato fields of 1847 Ireland to a New England horse ranch. Fergus O'Brien, the teenage son of a tenant farmer, is sent to a workhouse after his parents are murdered. He quickly escapes, joins a band of brigands and, after raiding his former landlord's farm, drifts to Dublin and then to Liverpool, where he is primed to work as a "pearl boy" (read: male prostitute). He hits the road again, this time settling in Wales, where he works on a rail line and meets Red Molly, a married woman who becomes his lover and traveling companion to America, where he plans to become a horse trader. The book veers dangerously close to melodrama on more than a few occasions, and Fergus, for all the contretemps encountered and indignities suffered, remains thin and unconvincing as a narrator. But readers may be able to overlook Behrens's authorial missteps and enjoy the sprawling, cinematically rendered immigrant story. (Sept.)
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Author Information

Bio of Peter Behrens

No bio available for Peter Behrens.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Random House Trade Paperbacks

Filesize

2.18 MB

Number of Pages

416

eBook ISBN

9781586421700

Awards

• Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award
• Commonwealth Writers Prize
• Governor Generals Literary Awards
• Libris Awards