The Law of Dreams

Walk outside. That is what you do in dreams. The law of dreams is, keep moving.

It is 1846 and Ireland is dying of hunger. Among the dead are Fergus's family, their emaciated corpses still warm when the landlord orders their home torched and destroyed.

And so Fergus begins his journey. It will take him from his mountain to the teeming streets of Dublin and Liverpool, through workhouse, dosshouse, brothel and railway shanty town; through love and need; ultimately, to the other side of the world.

Praise for The Law of Dreams:

'One great book.'

Malachy McCourt

'A fearsome story of such prolonged agony and unquenchable spirit that you can't escape till the final page abandons you to astonished silence.'

Washington Post

'Stunningly lyrical...a work of richly empathetic imagination that reminds us once again of how powerful historical fiction can be in skilled hands.'

Los Angeles Times

'The storytelling is terrific, the writing lyrical, often startling.'

New Yorker

'Absorbing, unsparing and beautifully written...a masterly novel.'

New York Times Book Review

'If the novel were judged solely on the language, precise and poetic in a way that cuts into the heart like a razor, no one could deny Behrens' brilliance. But...Behrens can also spin a wild yarn. The Law of Dreams is a novel with as much craft as art, an adventure tale as epic and gripping as a modern Dickens.'

Montreal Mirror