title: The Winds of Morning
author: MacShane, Gifford
description: 1848: the third year the potato crop failed in Ireland. The Protestant landlords have absconded back to Britain, leaving the Catholic peasants to fend for themselves, while the government allowed the export of tens of thousands of tons of Irish food daily. With two younger brothers to feed, Molly O'Brien took her father's place on the road gang, building a road that runs from her tiny village to the river and no farther. Yet sixteen hours of labor a day would not garner enough wages to even buy bread for her family. She was beyond despair. Beyond prayer. And so far beyond the tenets of her childhood that she'd decided to offer her body to the first man with the price of a loaf of bread. But when a stranger takes her hand, will Molly's sacrifice be worthwhile?