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The Pawnbroker's Reward (Signed hardback)
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The incredible literary debut from one of Ireland’s best-loved songwriters.
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Weight: 800 g
The Pawnbroker’s Reward
'A tale shaped with the lyricism of a songwriting giant.' Joseph O’Connor
Based on real lives and events during the most defining moment of Ireland’s history, The Pawnbroker's Reward is the first installment of an epic saga and the incredible literary debut from one of Ireland’s best-loved songwriters. Published in Ireland by Gill Books on Nov 5th, 2021, it quickly climbed into the top five in Hardback Fiction and remained there for some eight weeks, peaking at Number 2.
1846. County Cork.
On the barren outskirts of Macroom, Pádraig and Cáit Ua Buaćalla face a perilous winter after the comprehensive failure of their blighted crop – the final episode in a whole history threatening to push them over the edge.
From his shop at the centre of town, pawnbroker Cornelius Creed sees the poor in their darkest hour, his premises often being their last stop on the way to the workhouse. Perfectly placed at the juncture between the classes, through Creed we also witness the wider political events that inform local government decisions and their impact on those struggling to survive.
Their stories and those of many others weave into a powerful account of the Great Famine through the lens of a single Irish town and its inhabitants. At once epic and intimate, this meticulously researched, multilayered work from one of Ireland’s best-loved songwriters delivers a rich, lyrical debut that resonates powerfully with our own troubled times.
The author:
Declan O’Rourke has been described by Jon Pareles of The New York Times as a writer of songs full of ‘compassion, romance, a sense of mortality and a sense of history’. His award-winning album Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine illuminated an extraordinary series of eye-witness accounts, including the story of Pádraig and Cáit of Ua Buaćalla in the song ‘Poor Boy’s Shoes’. His song ‘Galileo’ has been described by Paul Weller as the song from the past thirty years he most wished he’d written. Other notable fans of O’Rourke include the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, Imelda May, Pete Townshend and Eddi Reader, who described O’Rourke as ‘one of the finest songwriters on the planet’.
Praise for The Pawnbroker’s Reward:
‘O’Rourke displays great subtlety in merging his story with factual information. There is no denying O’Rourke’s storytelling ability and skill at balancing the novel between a battle that wages profit against humanity.’ – John Boyne, The Irish Times
‘Brings the famine to vivid life with passion and heart. I devoured it.’ – Sue Leonard, The Irish Examiner
‘The Pawnbroker’s Reward is full of heartfelt, lyrical sentences that vividly conjure up the agony of the 1840s in Ireland.’ – Nadine O’Regan
‘The compassion, and empathy, so key to Declan’s songwriting, are qualities very present throughout the novel.’ – Kernan Andrews
‘It’s admirable to see someone take the craft of novel writing seriously.’ – Eilis O’Regan
‘It is such a universal story that nobody could read that anywhere and not be moved by it.’ – Matt Cooper
‘What [Declan] was able to do was craft it into a narrative that makes the past feel like the present.’ – Aoife Barry
'A tale shaped with the lyricism of a songwriting giant. A powerful and gripping piece of writing from a born storyteller' Joseph O’Connor
‘Lucid, lovingly-written and lyrical...faithfully captures the horrors of the early months of the Great Hunger’ Professor Christine Kinealy
‘Amazing. Based on real people and informed by contemporary records of the time. The research in the book is impeccable.’ – Pat Kenny
‘A powerful, multi-layered work showing us the famine as it happened through the lens of a single town – Macroom.’ – RTÉ Culture
‘A detailed and evocative telling of one of our nation’s darkest stories. The Pawn- broker's Reward brings the famine to life and infuses it with a humanity often missing from historical accounts.’ - Ray Darcy.
‘Declan is a master storyteller in song and now he’s written a masterful story in The Pawnbroker’s Reward, it captures you from the beginning.’ - Marty Whelan, broadcaster, Lyric FM.
‘An ambitious, moving and quite brilliant piece of work.’ – Pat Carty
‘O’Rourke is connecting with our ancestors too. Not with song this time but with this meticulously, lovingly and exhaustively researched account of the Great Famine....an earnest and fastidious labour of love as it reaches back to the suffering of past generations.’ - Liam Heylin, The Irish Examiner
‘Full of heart and heartbreak, he resurrects the time of the famine with care and honesty. An original take on the darkest period in Irish history, it is well worth a read.’ – Daniel Seery, Dublin Inquirer
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