A Letter to Southern Lady Book Club Readers

Thank you so much for reading The Irishman’s Daughter.

This book was a labor of love from beginning to end, and from its inception, presented challenges that tested my writer’s mettle as never before. The novel is grand in scope, encompassing Ireland and America in its settings, presenting my protagonists with a faceless killer (a blight of catastrophic nature), and life-and-death choices that only the strongest characters could face.

From voluminous reading about the famine to travel to Ireland for research, The Irishman’s Daughter took up two years of my life and expanded my knowledge on a subject I knew little about before I began writing. In reading the novel, I hope you learn something about this tragic time in Irish history as well.

As always in my fiction, I strive to be factually accurate while placing my characters in historical settings. I also believe that readers should leave a book with a sense of hope; a feeling that despite the hardships the characters endure all may yet turn out well for those so dramatically affected.

So please, curl up on your comfortable couch with a cup of Irish tea, open a window to let in the fresh spring air, sit in the sun, or enjoy the April showers outside—The Irishman’s Daughter awaits you. I sincerely hope you will find the epic journeys of Briana, Rory, Lucinda, and Brian as thrilling as I did in the writing.

Happy reading!
V. S. Alexander