Where the Heart Should Be

The outstanding novel from the Carnegie Medal-winning, former Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan; thought-provoking and incredibly moving, it explores love and family during The Great HungerIreland, 1846 Nell is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of the Big House. Once she loved school and books and dreaming. But there's not much choice of work when the land grows food that rots in the earth. Now she is scrubbing, peeling, washing, sweeping for Sir Philip Wicken, the man who owns her home, her family's land, their crops, everything. His dogs are always well fed, even as famine sets in.Upstairs in the Big House, where Nell is forbidden to enter, is Johnny Browning, newly arrived from England: the young nephew who will one day inherit it all. And as hunger and disease run rampant all around them, a spark of life and hope catches light when Nell and Johnny find each other. This is a love story, and the story of a people being torn apart. This is a powerful and unforgettable novel from the phenomenally talented Sarah Crossan.

One of our finest novelists. Where the Heart Should Be is a thing of beauty., Sarah Crossan’s writing is powerful and necessary, A tour de force from Sarah Crossan, Where the Heart Should Be thrums with longing, beauty, loss and strength., PRAISE FOR TOFFEE: "Utterly Sublime", - Cecelia Ahern, "Impossible not to read it in a single gulp" - The Times, "Undoubtedly one of the best books of the year" - Irish Times, "Compelling and beautifully wrought" - The Sunday Times, "A book that changes its reader for the better" - The Guardian, "One of our most original writers" - John Boyne

Sarah Crossan has lived in Dublin, London and New York, and now lives in East Sussex. She graduated with a degree in philosophy and literature before training as an English and drama teacher at the University of Cambridge. Sarah was the Laureate na nÓg (Ireland’s Children’s Literature Laureate) from 2018–2020.@SarahCrossan