This House Will Feed

Summary

In an atmospheric novel of dark historical fiction, a young Irish woman whose world has been ravaged by the Great Famine must confront hidden memories and a strange, ancient power in a remote Clare village.

County Clare, 1848: In the scant few years since the potato blight first cast its foul shadow over Ireland, Maggie O’Shaughnessy has lost everything—her entire family and the man she trusted with her heart. Toiling in the Ennis Workhouse for paltry rations, she can see no future either within or outside its walls—until the mysterious Lady Catherine arrives to whisk her away to an old mansion in the stark limestone landscape of the Burren.

Lady Catherine wants Maggie to impersonate her late daughter, Wilhelmina, and hoodwink solicitors into releasing Wilhelmina’s widow pension so that Lady Catherine can continue to provide for the villagers in her care. In exchange, Maggie will receive freedom from the workhouse, land of her own, and the one thing she wants more than either: a chance to fulfill the promise she made to her brother on his deathbed—to live to spite them all.

Launching herself into the daunting task, Maggie plays the role of Wilhelmina as best she can while ignoring the villagers’ tales of ghostly figures and curses. But more worrying are the whispers that come from within. Something in Lady Catherine’s house is reawakening long-buried memories in Maggie—of a foe more terrifying than hunger or greed, of a power that calls for blood and vengeance, and of her own role in a nightmare that demands the darkest sacrifice …

“A captivating, lushly drawn Gothic novel that juxtaposes the horrors of colonialism against the seductive danger of vengeance, all set during the Irish Famine. Tureaud weaves a haunting, timely and utterly mesmerizing tale that kept me turning pages and racing to the end. I cannot wait to see what she writes next!"—Jess Armstrong, USA Today bestselling author