Joseph O'Connor

An old woman makes her way across London on the morning after a hurricane. As she wanders past bombsites and through the city's forlorn beauty, a snowdrift of memories and lost desires seems to swirl. She has been married: once widowed, once divorced, but an unquenchable passion for life has kept her afloat as her dazzling career has faded.

September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. The war's outcome is far from certain. An Irish priest Hugh O'Flaherty dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City the world's smallest state a neutral independent country within Rome where the occupiers hold no sway. Here Hugh brings together an unlikely band of friends to hide the vulnerable under the noses of the enemy.

But Hauptmann's net begins closing in on the Escape Line and the need for a terrifyingly audacious mission grows critical. By Christmastime it's too late to turn back. Based on an extraordinary true story My Father's House is a powerful literary thriller from a master of historical fiction. 

1865: The American Civil War is ending. Eighteen years after the famine ship ‘Star of the Sea’ docked at New York, the daughter of two of its passengers sets out from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Eliza Duane Mooney is searching for her younger brother who she has not seen in four years. It's a walk that will have consequences for many…

Dublin 1994, Devastated by events concerning his daughter, Bill Sweeney is about to commit murder. X rated, contains offensive language and graphic violence.

1878: The Lyceum Theatre, London. Three extraordinary people begin their life together. Henry Irving is the volcanic leading man and impresario; Ellen Terry is the most lauded actress of her generation, and following along behind them is the unremarkable theatre manager, Bram Stoker. Bram is wrestling with dark demons in a new city and as he walks the London streets at night, streets haunted by the Ripper and the gossip which swirls around his friend Oscar Wilde, he finds new inspiration...

In the winter of 1847 the 'Star of the Sea' leaves Ireland for New York. The passengers are hundreds of fleeing refugees, braving the Atlantic in search of a new home. Unknown to them, a killer is stalking the decks, hungry for vengeance. Richard & Judy Bookclub.