e Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel in Galena, IL will host a book talk and signing with Ann O'Farrell on Sunday, August 3 at 4:30 p.m. in the Cottage’s W. B. Yeats Library. Ann is a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, where she studied drama and sociology and later taught dramatherapy. She worked as a dramatherapist, theater director and designer for many years. She and her husband, John, recently retired and emigrated from Dublin to Palm Harbor, Florida, where she is working on her third book, Kitty's Hive.

Ann O'Farrell's novels "Norah's Children" and "Michael" create an absorbing family saga and a rich portrait of rural Ireland in the '20's and '30's.

Norah’s Children

Ireland 1924. When Norah Kelly unexpectedly dies, her family's peaceful, rural life is shattered. Whilst her husband, Brendan, seeks a new wife he temporarily places their four youngest children with an elderly aunt, keeping only the eldest, Pierce. His plans inexplicably change the morning after his wedding. He refuses to take the children back, or explain his decision. The aunt is left to resolve the children's plight.

Michael

England 1925. Michael, aged three, is the youngest of Norah Kelly’s five children. He is separated from his brothers and sisters and then given away by his adoptive father to a spinster sister as ‘financial insurance for her old age.’ With the Second World War looming, will his eldest sister, Mary, help the abandoned boy reunite with the Irish family he no longer remembers, before it is too late?

For more information, contact The Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel, 866-284-7474, cwww.theirishcottage.com or visit the Author’s website at www.annofarrell.net.