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Publisher's Summary

Driven from the only home he has known during Ireland's Great Hunger of 1847, Fergus O'Brien makes the harrowing journey from County Clare to America, traveling with bold girls, pearl boys, navvies, and highwaymen. Along the way, Fergus meets his three passionate loves: Phoebe, Luke, and Molly. They are vivid, unforgettable characters, fresh and willful.

Based on Peter Behrens's own family history, The Law of Dreams is lyrical, emotional, and thoroughly extraordinary, a searing tale of ardent struggle and ultimate perseverance.
©2006 Peter Behrens (P)2011 Peter Behrens

Critic Reviews

"Behrens's impressive, swiftly paced saga tracks the life of an Irish boy after his family dies during the Great Potato Famine.... Behrens's language... has a visceral rhythm, and his similes meld the humble with the lyrical: whales rise 'hissing' in a river, light 'stutters' off an iron roof." ( The New Yorker)
"What Behrens knows, what he teaches us again in this masterly novel, is that the past was indeed wondrous, and terrible and strange, but that it was a very real place." ( The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about The Law of Dreams: A Novel

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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I might recommend the book to a friend, but I would not recommend this recording.

What didn’t you like about Jonathan Waters’s performance?

This reading is on par with performances I have seen at high school plays. The accents and voices are uneven, and the reader's attempts at emotional dialogue are just plain irritating.

3 people found this helpful

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Entrancing story marred by production flaws

Very well written and fascinating account that puts you into the suffering and struggle of those who lived the famine. My enjoyment was marred by sloppy audio editing, especially in the last few chapters, where the editor left in the narrator's false starts and stumbles. Also strange inconsistent audio gaps between chapters. This title deserves better editing. I