The Tide Between Us (The O'Neill Trilogy)

I was born on a Caribbean island so I know how diverse a persons background can be. This book gives you a deep look into the slavery trade and bow some families try to hide their history.Fascinating story. Very detailed and great characters.

Amazing story of two families and how slavery impacted their lives. Hatred is easily understood as slaves are misused, kept in deplorable conditions. And the effects on generations are defined. Not an easy read but believable.

This story of a boy child in Ireland sold into slavery by the British government to a Jamaican plantation in the early 19th century is a haunting and absolute heart wrenching story.The ugly history of slavery is one we must all live with, and this one of the abusive British government's policy by which thousands of Ireland's children were torn from their families and basically kidnapped to slave on plantations in colonies is striking in its history as told through the reminisces of various members of the mixed race family. As the author's note states, some 25% of Jamaicans have Irish ancestry. The mixing of races on the plantations was common with both African and Irish slaves as was the British plantation owners with their African female slaves.Told mostly through the eyes of the Irish boy Art over a 70-year period working on the Jamaican plantation he tells his life story which includes relations with his African counterparts. His wives, children and grandchildren are black and his love for them is a driving force as is his lifelong dream to return to Ireland and his ever present hatred for the British landowner 's patriarchal family in Ireland where the demise of his own father was the catalyst for his being sent away and sold onto the Jamaican plantation.The numerous characters are well described as the decades of servitude to a British race without humanity and the treatment of people, both Irish and African, they deemed subhuman as dispensable property is well described and examined.The story includes present day extended family in Ireland and the secrets carried to 1991 as a skeleton is recovered on the property of the same British landowning family where the story began. So there's a bit of a mystery involved in a striking plot that kept me glued to the pages.The writing is very good and, although not the first I've read about Irish slavery, one of the best I've read. I would recommend to readers of historical fiction.

A really well written, orderly sequenced book about a young boy stolen from Ireland to Jamaica as an indentured servant only to end up working for the man who hung his innocent father back in iteland. Many generations after him are affected from a curse bestowed from that action.

The rating is really depending on what the reader is looking for. It is a detailed saga with multiple characters with lives entwined. The historical premise is based on Irish “immigrants “ to Jamaica and how they became integrated in Jamaican life. Immigrants- aka- forced migration by the English. Many were one step away from being enslaved- if that was possible. The novel follows 2 families- one English who abused power in Ireland and ruled with privileged white authority in Jamaica. The other - Irish- who suffered from the abuse and forced immigration- following the life of a child of about 11/12- and his ensuing life in Jamaica; struggle with hatred and desire for revenge, but also his love of his family.Interesting how the slave trade cycles from Jamaica to Cuba, to Morocco. So much of our thoughts on slave trade centers on whites only- but this demonstrated a broader expanse of the evils of slave trade. Little time was spent on Morocco slavery, but one character was mentioned being sold to mining slavery- so that by the time he was 22, his mind and body was spent.The author brings the story back to Ireland with unexpected twists in the lives of the two families.This was a trip read for me- not sure I would commit as a regular read, but then it is different from my norm. Not a happy feel good novel, but more realistic- maybe that’s why I don’t want to give it 4+ stars.

It’s been quite a while that I have read a book that I couldn’t put down and had a few sleepless nights over!!!

Great book. If you like historical fiction, you’ll enjoy this book. There’s a lot of history out there from outside the USA and this book is one of them.

Taught me something that I Did not know. A well written story

Loved this story and I will be purchasing the subsequent books

I absolutely loved this book, as I am part Irish it really made me feel for these generations of kinfolk, they got used as slaves, by their own so called country men.

It was exactly as expected

I am of Irish descent and as l have grown l learn more and more about this abused people. My ancestors left Ireland because of the Great Potato Famine in order to survive. I read this book feeling sorrow, for children who perished in the voyage, in faraway fields and lonely huts all because they were Irish..

I was totally gripped with this book! The history was so interesting and the story was great. The only downside for me was the abrupt ending. I felt like there was so much more to say..