The Hungry Earth Hardback - 1997

Irish history, dark humor, and skillful writing make for a gripping novel of an ambitious businessman's spiritual awakening
-- In his debut novel, Sean Kenny combines realism, history, and time-slip sequences to tell a spiritual story with the excitement of a psycho thrillerTurlough Walsh is a man of the '90s. A successful, highly paid accountant in Dublin, Ireland, he has a nice car, an expensive home on a tree-lined lane, a pretty wife, nice kids, and an occasional mistress. His boss admires his cutthroat approach to human resource management -- squeezing all he can from his employees -- and he's getting places. Sure, it means stepping on some people, but guilt doesn't have a place in Turlough Walsh's world, where winning is all that matters.But when Turlough cracks his head in a drunken fall, life takes a drastic turn. When he comes to, Turlough finds himself transported through time to the midst of the Great Irish Famine, the worst catastrophe in the nation's history. Here, the every-man-for-himself school of existence isn't applicable. People everywhere are victims to the famine, and Turlough is horrified by the sufferings of those around him. Back in the 20th century, his suburban complacency begins to crumble.Sean Kenny's debut novel is a dramatic tale of awakenings. Black humor leavens the spiritual bankruptcy of a contemporary character all too real in the fast-paced world of the '90s. Kenny's story, though, is more than just a novel. It reflects his belief that the effects of the famine linger in modern Irish culture. The Hungry Earth may well give more insight into the human experience of the Great Famine than many of the nonfiction histories written about it.