Far from the Blessed Land — Ian Kavanaugh

CRISIS FOR THE O'DONNELLS - FAR FROM THE BLESSED LAND

Swept up in the wave of American patriotism during World War I, Jim O'Donnell defies the will of his father to risk his life on the front lines in Europe. In his quest to comfort the war-weary with the traditional Irish music passed on to him by his grandfather, the young fiddler soon comes to know the horrors of battle first-hand.

Meantime, on the home front, Jim's cousin Bernadette seeks to help the war effort in her own way, and finds herself involved with a soldier on leave - a brief, passionate affair that can end only in heartbreak. And Terry O'Donnell, black sheep of the family, is caught up in the world of gamblers and gangsters, and ends up fighting to survive the Prohibition-era he has come to love in all its wild abandon.

Torn by the sorrows of War and the grim realities of the Great Depression, the O'Donnell clan must draw on the strength of the family, and on their proud Irish heritage, to triumph over these troubled times that could destroy them.