Give Them Stones - Softcover

Mary Beckett

3.88

48 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0747502161 ISBN 13: 9780747502166

Publisher: Bloomsbury, 1988

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Until the day they shot a boy in both legs up against Matha's wall, she had never been one for taking risks in that precarious corner of Belfast. But she couldn't agree with the Provos taking the law into their own hands. Ever since being a school child, she had despised bullying. Her own was a gentle rearing, if a materially poor one. Over sixty years of dramatic events in Belfast are viewed in this novel through the eyes of a perfectly ordinary woman who was exposed to war, murder, bombings and curfews. "Give Them Stones" was the winner of the Sunday Tribune Arts Award for Literature (1987). Mary Beckett is also the author of "A Woman of Belfast".

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From Publishers Weekly:

The author of A Belfast Woman presents a spare, powerfully affecting story with slyly humorous asides in the voice of Martha Hughes. The child of a poor Belfast family, Martha witnesses the strife between Catholics and Protestants, beginning during the time of the Troubles in 1935. Later, during World War II, the British intern her father, a Catholic suspected of IRA leanings. A woman grown, Martha marries and cares for her children with little help from her passive husband. During the years, she yearns for something of her own and for a united Ireland. When Martha discovers a talent for baking bread and earning money, she begins to fulfill both ambitions, contributing her profits to the Provos. But when the freedom fighters cripple a young boy, she refuses to give them further support and pays a terrible price for her rebellion. That is a momentary setback, however, not defeat for the courageous woman who struggles to achieve the life of dignity she deserves.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

In clear, spare fashion, Martha's life in Belfast is told alongside the recent history of Northern Ireland. Martha's family is of humble origins, and when her father is imprisoned for supposed IRA connections, she must leave school to work in the mill. She escapes the "Troubles" to the countryside with some elderly aunts, returns to Belfast to marry and produce four sons, and later opens a small neighborhood bakery amid growing violence. This seemingly slight, matter-of-fact story is rich in perceptive detail, and Martha's view of the religious/political turmoil is at once naive and profoundly insightful. Warmly recommended.Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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