The Pirate Queen: A Novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A sweeping historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O’Malley, the legendary Irish folk heroine who risked everything to defend her people. Venture onto the high seas with the thrilling latest from the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River and I Was Anastasia.
Grace O’Malley was born to be a sea captain. But despite her natural skill on the water, Grace learns early that her dreams of a life at the helm are not compatible with the expectations of her noble family. As the only daughter of a powerful chieftain, her role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children. But when she’s sent to foster with a nearby clan, Grace falls for a clever and open-minded second son—a man she cannot have.
Married off against her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering followers loyal to her, and consolidating her husband’s power, only to be ousted from his lands. But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to sea, finally leading clan O’Malley’s mighty fleet. Just as she finds true independence, Queen Elizabeth’s incursions into Ireland grow bolder and Grace must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most against the cruel and power-hungry English deputies, who will stop at nothing to check her influence.
Keenly observed and fiercely written, Ariel Lawhon's new action-packed novel channels the untamed beauty and harsh realities of sixteenth-century Ireland, as seen through the eyes of an unforgettable heroine who rightly became “the Pirate Queen of Ireland.”
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Community Reviews
“Grace was a powerful maritime leader. A pirate. Rebellious. She controlled the seas along the west coast of Ireland. She engaged in open rebellion. She despised Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connaught—and for good reason.” As Grace stated, ‘“Ireland has no queen beyond the Pale. And Connaught none but myself.”
“The most famous correspondence about Grace, however, surrounds her 1593 appeal to Queen Elizabeth I. She wrote to plead for the lives of her brother and youngest son, who had been captured by Bingham and were awaiting execution. In response, Elizabeth sent a letter, now known as the Eighteen Interrogatories. A seemingly random list of questions about Grace’s life, exploits, and acquaintances, it was a trap designed to make her confess to illegal activity. In reading her answers we see a master tactician performing a tightrope walk along a razor blade.”
“Grace is three years Elizabeth’s senior, but they are of a pair in this moment: two women at odds with a world full of men…They are surrounded by men and arguments and demands. But the two women consider each other… ‘We are not so different, you and I…We both know how to survive’…the vulnerability, the exhaustion of a woman who has defied the odds for six decades.”
“They draw a breath at the same time. Release it. Recognize themselves in the other” as “two queens settle their differences in person without bullets or blades. Theirs was a battle of words, waged civilly, before an audience of men who had no power over them. What might read as quiet was in fact groundbreaking. I wish I could have been there to see it.”
Ariel Lawhon’s The Pirate Queen made me feel like I experienced it. I was so inspired by this real life example of this Maiden, Mother, and Matriarch, that I dressed up as Grace for Halloween! Pour yourself a glass of port–complex, a bit like Grace–and prepare to be transported on a maritime adventure to fecking Galway!
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