Dimensions
161 x 242 x 37mm
Ireland in 1902 is a country in turmoil moving into a turbulent century. Nessa O'Grady's life, as she celebrates her twenty-third birthday, reflects all that is changing: the old, landowning, once powerful O'Grady family is impoverished and disintegrating, her beloved father drinking himself to death, her brothers abandoning Kilraven House and their heritage.
What is certain in this uncertain world is Nessa's love for her childhood sweetheart Theo Howard, and the fact that they will marry. But one tragic act challenges Nessa's assumptions and changes all her plans.
When she meets the wealthy and travelled Thomas Cooper, Nessa is more than receptive to his flattering advances and the prospect of escape he offers. They marry and journey together to the colony of King Leopold II of Belgium, the Congo Free State in West Africa, where Cooper is a trader.
Once there, Nessa finds herself a part of a murderous, slave-labour regime. Her husband's wealth is based on cruelty and exploitation and when she realises the extent of his depravity and corruption she determines to flee, and take some of Cooper's victims with her.
Her escape brings her into contact with Roger Casement, British Consular and champion of the Congolese people, and with American journalist, David Addison. With their help she makes her way back to Ireland, only to find she is pregnant . . .
Rose Doyle's new novel is a compelling tale of a society at a period of momentous change. Nessa O'Grady is a passionate woman at odds with the conventions and restrictions of her time, and her story will enthrall and absorb all those who loved 'Friends Indeed', Rose Doyle's previous historical novel.
