My Tears, My Only Bread

The love of a story is the lifeblood of a culture. The Irish, so enamored by stories, will live and relive moments and even seconds because to forget just one instance of life is to lose what is most essential. Details, events, even facts are given less importance than the essence of a tale. Bards and poets are more readily believed and more highly esteemed than those whose governance dictates the limits and mores of life. We believe the story because we understand it. We believe the storytellers because we know it is their story as well as ours. We want the story to continue. We need to hold close to our hearts the memory, the substance of the sun so that in the gray mist of the cloud we can still believe the horizon is there. A cloud has settled over Ireland in My Tears My Only Bread. The years of 1845-1850 are etched in the hearts of the Irish like a bare branch against the moon. The family we met in A Tent For The Sun enters into this cloud; unsuspecting, unknowing and filled with hope that somehow they will be spared. Tom and Meg Phalen and their children continue the story based on the life of the author's maternal ancestors, Irish peasant Michael Maloney and the aristocratic Margaret Webb. My Tears My Only Bread is the second book in the series to tell their story, to carry their voice into our time and to bear witness to their truth and the essence of their lives. Like A Tent For The Sun, My Tears My Only Bread is a universal story. Characters, good and evil, sober and hilariously funny, fill the pages. Deep love, courage, faith and fearless daring will carry these characters through adventure, intrigue and heartbreak to the end.