I've had this book upon the recommendation of an Irish friend who noted that it is a "more accurate portrayal than Avi novels of the same period--1840s famine time in Ireland." It is older (c1978) & out of print, the latter fact a sad one, as it is an outstanding historical fiction. Set in 1847, the book opens with twin 15-year-old boys, orphaned when their parents died of "famine fever," being expelled from their hovel by the local representatives of the corrupt British landlord.

So they won't be sent to a workhouse, the boys lie and say that they have an uncle in a nearby village. They set off to find an old family friend only to find the entire town "'all starving in there, every last one of them. They can't talk, even....They're all skeletons. Their poor bones are breaking through the skin.'" The boy, Com & Finn, harbor varying levels of bitterness toward the English...to be continued. ( )

I've had this book upon the recommendation of an Irish friend who noted that it is a "more accurate portrayal than Avi novels of the same period--1840s famine time in Ireland." It is older (c1978) & out of print, the latter fact a sad one, as it is an outstanding historical fiction. Set in 1847, the book opens with twin 15-year-old boys, orphaned when their parents died of "famine fever," being expelled from their hovel by the local representatives of the corrupt British landlord.

So they won't be sent to a workhouse, the boys lie and say that they have an uncle in a nearby village. They set off to find an old family friend only to find the entire town "'all starving in there, every last one of them. They can't talk, even....They're all skeletons. Their poor bones are breaking through the skin.'" The boy, Com & Finn, harbor varying levels of bitterness toward the English...to be continued. ( )