A Different Kind of Dream Author:Geraldine O'Neill Previously published in 2006 as The Flowers of Ballygrace — In this enchanting story of life and love in 1950s Ireland, Geraldine ONeill shares the warmth and charm that has won her so many fans. Poignant and captivating, A Different Kind of Dream invites you into a world full of drama and compassion. — Kate Flowers lives on the banks of the... more » canal in Ballygrace, looking after her widowed mother Mary and her unreliable brother Brendan who works on the barges. Life starts to change when Kate meets handsome boatman Michael OBrien and she casts aside her dreams of nursing for the conventional path of marriage and motherhood.
But trouble looms when Kate and her mother visit Auntie Rose in Stockport where Mary rediscovers her forgotten youth and finds a new interest in men. Brendan, meanwhile, is torn between emigration and his secret love for the daughter of a volatile neighbour when his livelihood on the canal barges is threatened.
Suddenly the familys life is shattered when a tragedy occurs, leaving all three in circumstances they could never have imagined. The Flowers family are forced to rebuild their lives in new surrounds that will test them, and give them the courage to bloom once again.« less