Very thought-inpiring and emotionally moving...

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	• In the Country of the Young Lisa Carey, 2002 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Very thought-inpiring and emotionally moving...

The reviews stated below describe the book exceptionally well and I will do little to add on to them.. but I feel that this book had an emotional impact for me.. it really hit home and nails several key issues lingering in my heart. The book relates to the pains and pleasures of life and death. It details the loss of innocence and the maturing of the mind. It describes in depth how time changes people and how the aches of yearning of had-beens and what-ifs can develop and consume people. I felt a whole array of emotions when I read this book but overall, I felt it had a good, if bittersweet ending and is definately worth reading.

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What an amazing young writer!

This book is an exquisite, rare treat. Her writing is described as lyrical and that word barely does her justice. I've read all of her books and they just keep getting better. She has the ability to touch you way down deep, primally deep, until you find yourself sobbing out loud. Long after the book is finished I find myself thinking of her characters and pondering her themes. I will be eagerly following the career of this talented artist.

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Fantastic!

After I finished reading Love in the Asylum, I immediately began to search for other books by Lisa Carey. I found In the Country of the Young and was not disappointed -- in fact, I liked it even better than Love in the Asylum, which was a wonderful story.

Carey has a magnificent way with words. I'm an author, a book coach, an editor, and a voracious reader. I try to read a book a week, but sometimes, I skim things, especially if I'm reading for my book club. Carey makes me want to slow down and savor every word, or to go back and reread a page or chapter to better understand the characters, and the message.

She has depth and substance, and this book was extremely well researched. Lisa Carey also has a terrific ability to describe life's tragedies and heartaches without being gloomy or maudlin.

Seven-year-old Aisling is en route to a new life in Québec, leaving behind unimaginable hardship during the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s. She was unwanted by her parents and treated despicably; the only one who loved her was her brother, Darragh.

Aisling lands in Maine and her life intersects with that of Oisin, who has had his own share of grief and disappointment. She dies aboard ship but returns from the dead on All Hallow's Eve to heal her own wounds, and tend to Oisin's guilt and broken heart.

The fantasy elements are presented so well that I was easily able to overcome my resistance to the notion of the credibility of a ghost. Carey makes the unbelievable seem real. She has great literary talent and I would highly recommend this heartwarming tale.

Sigrid Macdonald

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A Magical Ghost Story Brimming With Life!

Forgive the pun, but Lisa Carey's "In The Country Of The Young" is a hauntingly, poignant ghost story. It is a novel that often enchants and provides a compelling read throughout. There are actually three tales interwoven here. Aislin's story: a melancholy tale of girl-child born out of wedlock to a woman of the lower-classes in Ireland, in the early 1840s - just before the potato blight. She is unwanted, unloved and lives a solitary existence, ostracized by all except her older brother, Darragh. There is Oison's story, along with that of his twin sister Nieve, beginning in the 1960s in Boston. They are the children of an Irish couple who do not love each other, and the tragedy of their dysfunctional family has an enormous impact on the two. And lastly, cohering all, is the story of Aislin and Oison in the present day on the island of Tiranogue, just off the Maine coast.

The novel opens in 1848, when an Irish "coffin ship" carrying starving immigrants, including Aislin and Darragh, crashes off the coast of Maine. One-hundred-fifty souls are rescued, one hundred are children. Aislin is one of them. However, more are lost at sea, including Darragh. The survivors are taken to the nearby island of Tir na nOg, which is Gaelic for "Country of the Young." There young Aislin, a beautiful, sensitive child, dies, calling out her brother's name.

Over a century later, the wee ghost of the girl-child Aislin makes her way to the home of artist Oison McDara. He lives as a recluse on Tiranogue, haunted by his twin sister's memory. Every year, for the last 30 years, on the night of the full moon equinox, (Halloween), Oison leaves a candle lit in his window and the door open for Nieve, his dead twin - in case she wants to come home. Aislin is drawn to the light, and perhaps, to Oislon's longing. As a boy, Oison had the gift of "sight." When Nieve died, during their teen years, he lost this ability - but now he sees Aislin, clear as day.

"In The Country Of The Young" is much more than a ghost story. It is primarily about the living, and though very sad at times, the narrative rings with life and color. Aislin has an opportunity, though brief, to live some of the life she lost when she was so young. Oison, emotionally dead for such a long time, also has another shot at life. And those whose lives they touch, are much richer for the experience.

Ms Carey's prose is lyrical, rich, often just beautiful, as is her imagery. What really makes the novel special, however, are her characters, their depth, complexity and growth. She illuminates them all. They have remained with me well after completing the book.

I highly recommend this magical, uplifting novel.
JANA

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Kind of creepy

Oision takes in a little girl, who he thinks is the ghost of his twin sister. She's not. But, he cares for her until she get old enough to sleep with him and then he starts the affair. It just gave me the creeps. The book is well written and interesting, but there's something off about a guy who will sleep with a woman who was first a seven year old girl he thought was his sister.

Ewwwwwwww!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

On a stormy November night in 1848, a ship carrying more than a hundred Irish emigrants ran aground twenty miles off the coast of Maine. Many were saved, but some were not -- including a young girl who died crying out the name of her brother.

In the present day, the artist Oisin MacDara lives in self-imposed exile on Tiranogue -- the small island where the shipwrecked Irish settled. The past is Oisin's curse, as memories of the twin sister who died tragically when he was a boy haunt him still.

Then on a quiet All Hallows' Eve, a restless spirit is beckoned into his home by a candle flickering in the window: the ghost of the girl whose brief life ended on Tiranogue's shore more than a century earlier. In Oisin's house she seeks comfort and warmth, and a chance at the life that was denied her so long ago.

For a lonely man chained by painful memories, nothing will ever be the same again.

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