An Excess of Love

Book excerpt: From the best-selling author of So Many Partings comes a powerfully moving story of two sisters who are thrust by circumstance into defying an empire. Elizabeth and Constance FitzGibbon, daughters of an Irish Protestant lord, are sheltered by great wealth and a loving family. But when headstrong Con turns her back on her past to marry an aspiring poet named Tierney O'Connor, who is fiercely devoted to the Irish cause, his fiery dream of revolution propels her into the firestorm of revolution. And when Beth FitzGibbon's own marriage to aristocratic Edmond Manningham proves cruelly disappointing, she, too, joins the heart of Ireland's bitter struggle. Dublin is a hotbed of Republican fervor, and the FitzGibbon sisters find themselves at the center of it. With their comrades James Connolly, Padraig Pearse, and Countess Markievicz they suffer hunger strikes and imprisonment. Finally they help plan one of the most audacious revolutions of all time, The Easter Rebellion. When for six days, beginning Easter Monday 1916, a small force of men and women holds out against the British Empire, even though the tragic outcome is never in doubt, the FitzGibbon sisters play out a destiny that is both heroic and unforgettable. This is a story of the extraordinary love that can exist between sisters, and of the love of a country that can demand passion, daring, and sacrifice, in order to fulfill its destiny. In this story, rich with historical detail, the torch is finally passed to the next generation. It is Con and Tierney's son Tahg, who assumes the challenge of his parents' unfinished dream. His fiercest foe is none other than his arrogant cousin, Winston Manningham. Jealousy over a beautiful actress, Kitty O'Neill, inflames their hatred, resulting in tragedy, and as civil war sweeps the nation, Beth's children, too, are engulfed in the carnage. When peace finally comes, it is Beth who bears witness to the fulfillment of a seven-hundred-year-old dream passed from generation to generation. An Excess of Love brings to vivid life the Irish struggle for independence and tells the story of one impassioned family who lives the dream of freedom, and heroically pay the terrible price it exacts.