The Star of the Sea

Authors: Joseph O'Connor

About the Book

The international No. 1 bestseller

‘This is Joseph O’Connor’s best book. It is shocking, hilarious, beautifully written, and very, very clever’ Roddy Doyle

‘A terrific story … A stealthily gripping narrative’
Daily Telegraph

In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by injustice and natural disaster, the
Star of the Sea
sets sail for New York.

On board are hundreds of fleeing refugees. Among them are a maidservant with a devastating secret, bankrupt Lord Merridith and his family, an aspiring novelist, a maker of revolutionary ballads, all braving the Atlantic in search of a new home. All are connected more deeply than they can possibly know. But a camouflaged killer is stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution.

The twenty-six day journey will see many lives end, others begin afresh. In a spellbinding story of tragedy and healing, the further the ship sails towards the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past which will never let them go.

‘A triumph … A spectacular breakthrough’
Sunday Times

‘His most substantial and impressive novel to date’
Irish Times

‘A masterful storyteller … A thrilling tale … O’Connor writes with nothing less than incandescent passion … Unfailingly gripping’
The Times

‘A modern masterpiece … The language is absolutely gorgeous’ Bob Geldof

Joseph O’Connor
S
TAR OF THE
S
EA
Farewell to Old Ireland

From
Harper’s Weekly: A Journal of Civilization

Contents

Also by Joseph O’Connor

Sources & Acknowledgements

This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781446435786

www.randomhouse.co.uk

Published by Vintage 2003

25 27 29 30 28 26 24

Joseph O’Connor has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Secker & Warburg

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780099469629

FOR ANNE-MARIE

AGAIN AND ALWAYS

[The Famine] is a punishment from God for an idle, ungrateful and rebellious country; an indolent and un-self-reliant people. The Irish are suffering from an affliction of God’s providence.
Charles Trevelyan, Assistant Secretary to Her Majesty’s Treasury, 1847
(Knighted, 1848, for overseeing famine relief)

England is truly a great public criminal. England! All England! … She must be punished; that punishment will, as I believe, come upon her by and through Ireland; and so Ireland will be avenged … The Atlantic ocean be never so deep as the hell which shall belch down on the oppressors of my race.
John Mitchel, Irish nationalist, 1856

T
HE
M
ISSING
L
INK
: A creature manifestly between the gorilla and the Negro is to be met with in some of the lowest districts of London and Liverpool by adventurous explorers. It comes from Ireland, whence it has contrived to migrate; it belongs in fact to a tribe of Irish savages: the lowest species of Irish Yahoo. When conversing with its kind it talks a sort of gibberish. It is, moreover, a climbing animal, and may sometimes be seen ascending a ladder laden with a hod of bricks.
Punch
magazine, London, 1862

Providence sent the potato blight but England made the Famine … We are sick of the canting talk of those who tell us that we must not blame the British people for the crimes of their rulers against Ireland. We do blame them.
James Connolly, co-leader of the Easter Rising
against British Rule, 1916

S
TAR OF THE
S
EA

Joseph O’Connor was born in Dublin. He has written eleven widely acclaimed and best-selling books including the novels
Cowboys and Indians
, shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize,
Desperadoes, The Salesman
and, most recently,
Redemption Falls
. His work has been published in twenty-seven languages.

ALSO BY JOSEPH O’CONNOR

Fiction

Cowboys and Indians

Desperadoes

The Salesman

Inishowen

Redemption Falls

Short Stories/Novella

True Believers

The Comedian

Non-Fiction

Even the Olives are Bleeding: The Life and