Grania - by Morgan Llywelyn (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Grania is the basis of the new Broadway muscial The Pirate Queen.

Here is an extraordinary novel about real-life Irish chieftain Grace O Malley. From Morgan Llywelyn, bestselling author of Lion of Ireland and the Irish Century novels, comes the story of a magnificent, sixteenth-century heroine whose spirit and passion are the spirit and passion of Ireland itself.

Grania (Gaelic for Grace) is no ordinary female. And she lives in extraordinary times. For even as Grania rises as her clan's unofficial head and breadwinner and learns to love a man, she enters a lifelong struggle against the English forces of Queen Elizabeth -- her nemesis and alter ego.

Elizabeth intends to destroy Grania's piracy and shipping empire--and so subjugate Ireland once and for all. But Grania, aided by Tigernan, her faithful (and secretly adoring) lieutenant, has no choice but to fight back. The story of her life is the story of Ireland's fight for solidarity and survival--but it's also the story of Grania's growing ability to love and be strong at the same time.

Morgan Llywelyn has written a rich, historically accurate, and passionate novel of divided Ireland -- and of one brave woman who is Ireland herself.

Review Quotes

"Grania explodes from the pages of Ms. Llywelyn's best historical novel yet as one of the most remarkable women who ever lived--brave, resourceful, passionate, tender, and, finally, in her battle with the English she-king Elizabeth, victorious. A book for all those who are Irish, or who would like to be, or who like to read about the Irish." --Andrew M. Greeley

"Mary Stewart has a worthy rival." --The Baltimore Sun

"Llywelyn is surely the modern-day Bard of the Irish. Grania is a page-turning, swashbuckling tale of the sixteenth-century Pirate Queen of Connaught, a clever and gallant lady whose own struggle for survival easily parallels twentieth-century woman's struggle for equality. It's a breathtaking read!" --Bertrice Small

"This is Morgan Llywelyn at her best--and yet in Grania there is a subtle departure from her earlier works, which celebrated Celtic beginnings. Here she sings of endings and twilight, in a story whose sensuality and sexuality themselves are strongly haunting within a whacking, all-out page turner." --Parke Godwin

About the Author

Since 1980 Morgan Llywelyn has created an entire body of work chronicling the Celts and Ireland, from the earliest times to the present day. Her critically acclaimed novels, both of history and of mythology, have been translated into many languages. She is an Irish citizen and lives in Dublin.