The Tide Between Us. This item is unavailable.The Tide Between Us

1821: After the landlord of Lugdale Estate in Kerry is assassinated, young Art O’Neill’s innocent father is hanged and Art is deported to the cane fields of Jamaica as an indentured servant. On Mangrove Plantation he gradually acclimatises to the exotic country and unfamiliar customs of the African slaves, and achieves a kind of contentment. When the new heirs to the plantation arrive from Ireland they resurrect the ghosts of brutal injustices against Art. He bides his time and hides his abhorrence from his owners. During those years he prospers, he sees his coloured children freed after emancipation, he owns land and his family thrive. Eventually he is promised seven gold coins when he finishes his service, but he doubts his master will part with the coins. One hundred years later in Ireland, a skeleton is discovered beneath a fallen tree on the grounds of Lugdale Estate. By its side is a gold coin minted in 1870. Yseult, the owner of the estate, watches as events unfold, fearful of the long-buried truths that may emerge about her family’s past and its links to the slave trade. As the skeleton gives up its secrets, Yseult realises she too can no longer hide.

Olive Collins is an award winning and bestselling historical fiction writer. Olive grew up in Tipperary, Ireland. She has travelled extensively and lived abroad for years. Her first novel, The Memory of Music tells the story of one family during Ireland's most turbulent years, the 1916 uprising and the subsequent War of Independence and Civil War. It is one of the few novels to explore the role of women. It was the winner of the Annie McHale Best Debut and remained in the Bestselling Charts for 3 months. The Tide Between Us is her critically acclaimed second novel. It retraces Ireland's long history with Jamaica. 25% of Jamaicans' claim Irish ancestry, most were deported during colonial times for committing little to no crimes. The Tide Between Us follows the story of one boy, an indentured servant deported to the cane fields of Jamaica and his subsequent generations. This epic novel spans 170 years. Olive is currently working on her third novel which is based on the first Irish pioneers who joined the wagon trails to the American West and became the first homesteaders.