During An Gorta Mor, or the Great Hunger of Ireland, over one million of Ireland's eight million died from sickness or starvation. Newbery-Award winner Patricia Reilly Giff chooses this horrific period between 1845-1852 as the setting for her latest novel. Don't expect a book full of cliché happy Irish peasants singing and dancing, catching leprechauns. Giff doesn't gloss over one gritty detail of a daily life where starvation seems imminent.

When 12-year-old Nory Ryan's family first settled on Maidin Bay generations ago, they owned the land they lived on and the house they built; the house that her family still lives in. Now, everyone must pay taxes to an Englishman, Lord Cunningham, who owns all their lands. Those that cannot afford to pay in cash must pay with livestock or --- worse yet --- land from which they then are evicted.

Her father is away fishing, hoping to make enough money to pay back taxes for the months he's been gone, and Nory's mother died long ago. Left to take care of each other, Nory, her two sisters, and her brother rely on their elderly grandfather to help get by. The Ryans are lucky enough to have two chickens, a pig, and their potato fields to help them survive.

One night, Nory is awakened by an awful smell that comes wafting in through the open doors and windows. Her grandfather instantly recognizes the smell of rot from the potato fields --- the potatoes are rotting while still in the ground. Even Nory knows what that means: They may actually starve to death. So begins Nory's struggle to stay alive.

Nory is a brave heroine, suffering through horrors that I don't think any of us can imagine. With death and cruelty all around her, somehow Nory's heart remains filled with a hopeful song: her father will come back, regardless of how long he's been gone now; her family will have enough money to go to America-together; she won't starve to death; and she won't let her baby brother die.

Nory's attempts to distract her brother from his constant hunger are heartbreaking. Even as neighbors turn on each other in a survival of the fittest, Nory remains true enough to risk her own life to keep those she loves alive. It isn't fair that a young girl should suffer as she does while still protecting those around her, yet that is exactly what happened to millions of girls just like Nory.

A glossary of Irish terms and a letter from the author make this eye-opening story even more tangible. I won't tell whether or not Nory and her family make it. Be ready for a book so well-written that you'll smell the sea and see the beauty in this fierce land and its people. But also be ready for a book so honest and frightening that you'll smell the rot, feel the exhaustion and the all-consuming hunger that each of the characters feel throughout. Believe me, you'll be happy to eat whatever is for dinner for a long time to come.

   --- Reviewed by Kate Torpie