A Powerful & Historical Irish Love Story

Kindle readers, take a look at today’s powerful featured book, Bird of Passage by award-winning author Catherine Czerkawska. A novel which tackles a shameful piece of Irish history, as well as a powerful and explicit story of cruelty, loss and enduring love against all the odds. “It’s not just a cracking read, it’s a genuinely powerful one, and once you stumble over the great love story at its centre you won’t be able to put this book down. A story that … has as many harsh and knotted bits as deliciously sweet ones, you will be taken to a different world by it, but one as real as your own.” –Dr David Manderson, University of the West of Scotland.

A Brief Summary of Bird of Passage:

In present day Scotland, a successful folk musician named India travels back to the small island where she was born, in an attempt to unravel the tragic love story which has coloured her whole life. She finds more than she bargained for.

Back in 1960s Scotland, young Finn O’Malley travels from Ireland to work on a Scottish farm. He and Kirsty, the farmer’s red-headed grand-daughter, become firm friends. But Finn is damaged by a childhood so traumatic that he can only recover his memories slowly. What happened at the brutal Irish Industrial School to which he was committed while still a little boy? For the sake of his sanity, Finn must find out why he was taken into care and what became of the mother he loved and lost.
Time passes, Kirsty moves away and the threads that have bound these two friends so closely together begin to unravel. Only her ambitions as an artist can give her the fulfilment she seeks, but her work is tied up with her love for her home and for Finn, who comes and goes like the corncrake each summer.

About the Author:

Catherine Czerkawska is an award-winning writer of historical novels, short stories, poems and many plays for the stage and for BBC Radio 4. Her novel The Curiosity Cabinet, a love story set in the Western Isles of Scotland and spanning several centuries, was one of three finalists for the Dundee Book Prize. It was published by Polygon, but is now available on Kindle, while God’s Islanders, a major hardback study of the history of the Hebridean Isle of Gigha, was published by Birlinn in November 2006. You’ll find a brand new novel called Bird of Passage, only on Kindle, as well as some small collections of short stories: A Quiet Afternoon in the Museum of Torture, and a trio of ghost stories called Stained Glass.

What Readers Are Saying About Bird of Passage:

“This would be a wonderful book for a book club discussion. There are many questions answered but there are also many more that the author has used to build the characters in the book and it is interesting to watch these two children grow and mature and how there later lives are still reflections of their past. An excellent read.” –Buttons

“The story kept my interest, and it was well written. I would recommend this author to all. I’m looking forward to reading more of her novels.” –Amazon Reader

“…tells an important story about Ireland, one we tend to forget when we wax romantic about the wee people and the Guinness and the Blarney Stone. It hangs out Ireland’s dirty laundry for all to see in the context of a powerful story of two people, inseparable in spirit, obsessed with each other, truly destined for each other: Finn and Kirsty.” — Leila Smith

Make sure to pick up your copy of Bird of Passage today.