History Corner / Book Review and Giveaway: The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill

**this giveaway is closed **


the butterfly cabinet cover
Synopsis: Inspired by a true story of the death of the daughter of an aristocratic Irish family at the end of the nineteenth century, McGill powerfully tells a tale of two women whose lives will become upended by a newly told secret.
The events begin when Maddie McGlade, a former nanny now in her nineties, receives a letter from the last of her charges and realizes that the time has come to unburden herself of a secret she has kept for over seventy years: what really happened on the last day in the life of Charlotte Ormond, the four-year-old only daughter of the big house where Maddie was employed as a young woman. It is to Charlotte's would-be niece, Anna—pregnant with her first—that Maddie will tell her story as she nears the end of her life in a lonely nursing home in Northern Ireland.


As Maddie confesses the truth to Anna, she unravels the Ormonds' complex family history, and also details her own life, marked by poverty, fear, sacrifice and lies.Motherhood came no more easily to Harriet than did her role as mistress of a far-flung Irish estate. Proud and uncompromising, she is passionate about riding horses and collecting butterflies to store in her prized cabinet. When her only daughter, Charlotte, dies, allegedly as the result of Harriet's punitive actions, the community is quick to condemn her and send her to prison for the killing. Unwilling to stoop to defend herself and too absorbed in her own world of strict rules and repressed desires, she accepts the cruel destiny that is beyond her control to stop.


Browse inside the book


About the Author: Bernie McGill was born in Northern Ireland. She has written for the theatre, short stories and now this novel. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for numerous awards and in 2008 she won the Zoetrope:All-Story Short Fiction Award in the US. She is a recent recipient of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's inaugural ACES (Artists' Career Enhancement Scheme) Award in association with the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University, Belfast. 


She lives in Portstewart in Northern Ireland with her family and works as a Creative Writing facilitator. She likes to sit in cafes drinking cappuccino and making up stories about the people going past.
Review: This was an interesting book to read- the modern woman reading it will quickly see how times have changed and be amazed at how different Ireland seems than our own country. Our modern minds sometimes can not get away from CSI, NCIS, Law and Order- we have a sense of fairness and discovery of the truth. Yet nineteenth century Ireland was not a woman'w world and seeking fairness was not allowable, except in token terms. Reading this book is akin to seeing a train wreck coming and being able to look away.


This not to say this book is not enjoyable- it grabs you and doesn't let you go! I finished it in 2 sittings! The book alternates chapters between Maddie's story and the prison diaries of Charlotte's mother, Harriet. You not only have a different sense of the class struggles at the time, but of 2 women both trying to find their way in a world that was not ready for their independent natures. You read an cringe at the trial, knowing the end that will come. But the writer has an ace up her sleeve and the unexpected, final chilling truth of the story will have you shaking your head and holding your breath!




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Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from Free Press Publicity, via bookblogs.ning ,for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.


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