The first book in the famine trilogyUnder the Hawthorn Tree is Ireland's top selling children's book and a classic for young readers worldwide. Set during the Irish famine, it follows three children as they travel across the country to find their family.
Ireland in the 1840s was in the grip of a terrible famine. When their father and mother go missing in a desperate search for food, the three O'Driscoll children are left to fend for themselves. Starving and in danger of the dreaded workhouse, they escape. Their one hope is to find the great-aunts they have heard about in their mother's stories.
