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‘My Dream of You’ by Nuala O’Faolain
copyright 2001 by Nuala O’Faolain
Riverhead Books
Nuala O’Faolain’s My Dream of You is a novel of many journeys- a journey through time to a scandal that took place one hundred and fifty years before, the journey back home to face one’s childhood and lastly the journey of a middle-aged woman facing her deepest fears about aging and love.
Kathleen de Burca is the main character of O’Faolain’s novel, and the eyes through which we observe both the past and present. Kathleen is a travel writer based in London who has seen every corner of the world, but has avoided her own country for many years. Upon the death of her closest friend and workmate Jimmy, Kathleen decides to go home to Ireland and pursue a different kind of writing. It is the story of a passionate love affair between a servant and lady of the manor that took place during Famine times, that has resonated down through the ages.
Here the story of Kathleen and the long dead couple come together in a seamless and powerful fashion. Kathleen confronts the ghosts of the family she left behind so long ago, while tracing the fate of the two lovers. She also meets a lover of her own; who presents her with a choice that could alter the course of her life.
My Dream of You is a heartbreaking novel that stays with the reader long after the last page is turned. It is about the fear of loneliness, the need for love and belonging and ultimately about the resilience of the human spirit.
Nuala O’Faolain is a columnist for the Irish Times. She lives in Dublin and the west of Ireland.
Book review written by Cindy Brandner author of Exit Unicorns
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