Mercy First and Last

Hanrahan engages readers with her portrayal of women struggling in a patriarchal society, focusing on the true story of Sarah Curran, whose personal rebellion against her dictatorial father nearly destroyed her. Sarah was the daughter of noted Irish lawyer John Philpot Curran, champion of Catholic emancipation and defender of accused traitors to Ireland in the late 18th century, a tumultuous period of Irish rebellion against British rule. Hanrahan’s book is replete with powerful characters, and John is portrayed as a tyrant with his wife and children; when he discovers Sarah’s clandestine courtship with—and subsequent engagement to—revolutionary leader Robert Emmet, he beats her almost to death, then disowns her. When Robert becomes a hunted man after a botched uprising, he begs Sarah to elope and leave Ireland. After a slow start, the novel begins to have a more feverish cadence, bringing to life a passionate rebel and her place in Irish lore. (BookLife)