Clochan

KEVIN NEAL, at the foot of the Blackstairs Mountains, fails to bait a Púca to fight. In this compelling, heartrending, Irish coming-of-age story, he learns too well what it costs when monsters are unleashed.

Decades before the great famine, the youngest Neal boy survives the war, but believes he has lost everyone. When he locates a childhood friend—Anastasia Kelly, he learns that she has become aloof and part of a different world. ANTY is as much a stranger to him as the tenants around an abbey by the seashore. The orphans try to hide from the past, but the violence encircling threatens what little they have left.

Can the orphans survive the wake of an Irish rebellion and the troubles unleashed? And, how does a boy fight a thing that tears apart the living and cuts through bone, without alerting a corrupt gentry and the sheriff's men?

Lawrence P. O'Brien's character-rich debut novel is a gripping, historical adult fantasy steeped in folklore, mystery, adventure, and romance. Clochan is an exploration of friendship, loss, and loyalty on a journey well-worth taking.