County Mayo, Ireland, 1847. The potato crop has failed two years in a row. People are in the throes of starvation, and young Bridget Sweeney must witness things that no nine-year-old should have to bear: Whole families stricken with fever, corpses littering the roadsides, and her own family forcibly evicted in the dead of night. Through a mix of dogged determination, sheer luck, perhaps even divine grace, they join the historic Irish diaspora, making their way to England and ultimately to North America. In Brideen author Kathleen McDonnell draws on fragmentary family records, centuries-old newspaper articles, even lyrics from traditional ballads to ensure that her ancestor's gripping story of survival will not be lost to history.

Kathleen McDonnell has published eleven books of fiction and non-fiction, and her plays have been produced across Canada and the United States. She's a longtime resident of Ward's Island, a ten-minute ferry ride from downtown Toronto, where she and her spouse raised their two daughters.