This novel has made it onto my rather slim list of favourite reads this year; it has certainly raised the bar of my expectations of historical fiction. The quality of writing, the rich soup of firmly believable characters all intertwined and seemingly doomed by their connections, the choice of narrative styles, the feeling of low tragedy told as high adventure, the ravaging journey which is somehow preferable to the shuffling starvation that has overwhelmed Ireland, the murder mystery told almost backwards, building a quite astonishing tension… I am firmly smitten with O’Connor’s style, which grants a rapport between the reader and the meanest, lowest character within the pages – whoever you might deem that person to be.

The Star of the Sea sets sail for America bearing its handful of first-class passengers and its steerage section crowded with destitute, starving Irish men and women; some bearing a murderous resentment for Lord Meredith, fleeing bankruptcy with his wife and their two sons, for his perceived role of evicting landlord. The family’s maid, Mary Duane sails with them, her cargo a personal history that embroils Meredith (no saint, but a strangely sympathetic sinner) with Pius Mulvey, a prison escapee who, despite his back-story of abhorrent misdeeds, is also more compelling to the reader than repellent; such is O’Connor’s gift for character. Also aboard is the book’s ‘author’, American journalist (and aspiring novelist), Grantley Dixon, lover of Laura Meredith, whose presence torments Lord Meredith equally for the man’s relentlessly touted social conscience, and relationship with the Earl’s wife.

Entwined with the unfolding drama, like another character, is the atmosphere of a famished Ireland and her people, and the conditions those lucky enough to be fleeing to a new life must survive or perish more miserably, perhaps, than if they had remained on shore, and the way the one tragedy colours the story, motives, and drama of the other is O’Connor’s primary accomplishment here. ( )

A victorian pastiche, O'Connor writes as an American journalist writing his memories of a journey to America from Ireland in the 1840's on board the ship 'Star if the Sea'. Through flashbacks we see the lives of a Lord and his family, a housemaid, Grantley the journalist and Mulvey the murderer. However, it is the captain who writes his journal that we get closest too and is the most sympathetic character.

I liked the book, its not the kind of book I would normally read at all and it felt a bit over researched, as if O'Connor was trying to demonstrate how much he knew and this put me off a bit as well as the references to Dickens which just felt a bit silly.

There are some great ideas, turns of phrases and some well crafted description but I think the problem is that despite it being billed as a thriller the murder is secondary and its the female characters that you wont to get to know more but who we see the least of especially Laura and Mary the maid. It is no doubt a comment of womens place in society but all the men, apart from the Captain maybe are flawed and despite being interesting they are hard to connect to.

I dont regret reading it but I'm not sure I would read another of O'Connors books. ( )

In 1847, the Star of the Sea is on its voyage across the Atlantic. Onboard, it's mostly Irish passangers making their way to America in search of better futures, away from the famine and fevers raging in Ireland. They include an impoverished Earl among the first-class passengers, and an overcrowded steerage where diseases spread fast. One person on board plans a murder.

I really like the structure of this novel, interspersed with quotations and short passages from texts of the time, and having different characters making records in their own styles. ( )

Beautifully written but harrowing account of a shipload of poor Irish refugees from the famine seeking a new life in America, Enlivened by the sterling characters of the Quaker ship's captain and the kindly ship's surgeon set against the unfeeling greed of the ship's owners and English aristocratic land holders in Ireland. ( )

Fascinating, powerful depiction of a journey from famine-struck Ireland to America. The multiple viewpoints and guest appearance of Charles Dickens can be distractingly whimsical at times, but also reflect the writer's fresh and adventurous approach to this work. ( )