Today, I am happy to shed some light on a book I recently read and very, very much liked. It is sort of fortunate Ms Mezzacappa is presently on tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club, thereby giving me the opportunity to share my review of her book, The Ballad of Mary Kearney.
Blurb:
‘I am dead, my Mary; the man who loved you body and soul lies in some dishonorable grave.’ In County Down, Ireland, in 1767, a nobleman secretly marries his servant, in defiance of law, class, and religion. Can their love survive tumultuous times?
‘Honest and intriguing, this gripping saga will transport and inspire you, and it just might break your heart. Highly recommended.’ Historical Novel Society
‘Mezzacappa brings nuance and a great depth of historical knowledge to the cross-class romance between a servant and a nobleman.’ Publishers Weekly.
The Ballad of Mary Kearney is a compelling must-read for anyone interested in Irish history, told through the means of an enduring but ultimately tragic love.
Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/3yxPpJ
My Review:
I must admit that I found the first few chapters of this book hard to get through – so many POVs presented in an episodical manner. And yet, little Mary Kearney had something that made me persevere, which is how I became entranced by this beautifully written story of a young papist girl—Mary—and the Protestant Viscount James Kilkeel.
Set in the latter half of the 18th century, Ms Mezzacappa depicts an Ireland rife with injustice: Catholics are considered second-class citizens and are effectively kept as such by denying them education, open expression of their faith or land ownership. Yes, the occasional Irish Catholic may own a small plot of land, but the law forbids him to pass it on unimpaired to one of his children, instead it must be subdivided between all of them, making it impossible to make a living from the land.
It was also forbidden for a Catholic to wed a Protestant. Major, major issue for our protagonists, because James may be gentry and educated, Mary uneducated and poor, but he is smitten with the girl—so smitten he doesn’t only want to bed her. He wants to keep her.
The lives of Mary and James with all their complications and challenges—and some of those challenges are heartbreaking, others horrifying—is told through letters, notations in diaries and the reflections of the various POV characters, principally Mary and James. The once so uneducated girl grows into a woman of quiet and unassuming strength, and James develops from the spoiled and much loved only son to a man of principles, while around them the world becomes more tumultuous, more uncertain as first America frees itself from colonialism, then France explodes into revolution.
I emerged from reading The Ballad of Mary Kearney with bloated eyes and far more understanding of the complicated Irish history than I had before. A read that both educates and moves—Brava, Ms Mezzacappa, Brava!
Katherine Mezzacappa is Irish but currently lives in Carrara, between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea. She wrote The Ballad of Mary Kearney (Histria) and The Maiden of Florence (Fairlight) under her own name, as well as four historical novels (2020-2023) with Zaffre, writing as Katie Hutton. She also has three contemporary novels with Romaunce Books, under the pen name Kate Zarrelli.
Katherine’s short fiction has been published in journals worldwide. She has in addition published academically in the field of 19th century ephemeral illustrated fiction, and in management theory. She has been awarded competitive residencies by the Irish Writers Centre, the Danish Centre for Writers and Translators and (to come) the Latvian Writers House.
Katherine also works as a manuscript assessor and as a reader and judge for an international short story competition. She has in the past been a management consultant, translator, museum curator, library assistant, lecturer in History of Art, sewing machinist and geriatric care assistant. In her spare time she volunteers with a second-hand book charity of which she is a founder member. She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society, the Irish Writers Centre, the Irish Writers Union, Irish PEN / PEN na hÉireann and the Romantic Novelists Association, and reviews for the Historical Novel Review. She has a first degree in History of Art from UEA, an M.Litt. in Eng. Lit. from Durham and a Masters in Creative Writing from Canterbury Christ Church. She is represented by Annette Green Authors’ Agency.
Author Links:
Website: https://katherinemezzacappa.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinemezzacappafiction
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-mezzacappa-09407815/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katmezzacappa/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/katmezzacappa.bsky.social
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/katherinemezzacappa
Thank you so much for hosting Katherine Mezzacappa today, Anna, and for your lovely review of The Ballad of Mary Kearney.
Take care,
Cathie xx
The Coffee Pot Book Club
My pleasure!