A Life Before: Book Details
Title: A Life Before
Series: The Yeats-Gonne Series (Book 1)
- Genre: Literary Fiction
- ISBN: 978-1-913349-69-1
- Publisher: Font Publications
- Publication Date: Spring 2025
- Purchase Link: Ornaross.com/ALifeBefore
About A Life Before
A Life Before is the first book in the highly anticipated Gonne-Yeats series which comprises seven standalone novels that together form an epic biographical fiction sequence about the life and times of Irish luminaries Maud Gonne and WB Yeats, and their circles… public and private.
Book Description:
A personal tragedy means the young English heiress, Maud Gonne, must leave the Ireland she has come to love, to return to the hated home of her patriarchal uncle in London. The young Irish poet WB Yeats, too, is forced by his father to leave his Dublin life where he has been using occult arts to fuel his writing, and to try to bend the woman he loves to his will. Also on that ferryboat is Paddy Cross, an Irish country boy who soon finds himself adrift in London’s criminal underworld.
Three lonely young people, threatened by forces beyond their control, coming of age in an era of international unrest and intrigue. Thus begins an intricately plotted and meticulously researched mix of fictional and factual stories.
The passionate love for Maud Gonne that Yeats immortalised in his poetry begins here. It is the first book in the Gonne-Yeats series, a dazzling seven-book sequence about the real-life, love triangle between the Nobel laureate poet WB Yeats, and the mother and daughter Maud and Iseult Gonne.
This first book in the series, a standalone novel in itself, introduces her cast of extraordinary characters as the three young seekers try to overcome the death or destruction that has suddenly erupted in their lives.
Told in the magical voice of the narrator-romancer, Rosy Cross, the ‘oldest woman in Ireland’, this story brings to life bohemian Dublin, London and Paris–and reveals hidden aspects of the famous poet, the revolutionary activist, and the lives they touched in this time of land agitation, class struggle, and fledgling women's rights movement.
Effortlessly traversing the Irish land wars, the Parisian demi-monde, and the London slums and stage, in A Life Before Orna Ross goes behind the towering reputation of Maud Gonne and WB Yeats to create an unforgettable tale of rich and poor, young and old, romance and reality, invention and truth.
A Life Before Downloads & Links
Book Information Sheet PDF: Download information one-sheet
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Buy Link: Ornaross.com/ALifeBefore
About the Author
Orna Ross is an award-winning Irish novelist and poet whose books explore creative expansion and the rebalance of male and female forces. An international bestseller, her writing awards include the Goethe Grand Prize for Historical Fiction and the Gold Literary Titan award for poetry, and she has been named one of the Top 100 People in Publishing for her work with ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. She was born and raised in Wexford, in the south-east of Ireland, and now lives in St Leonard's on Sea, in the south-east of England, within working reach of London. Her motto is: “When in doubt, be braver.” Find out more at OrnaRoss.com/about
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