Ruth McCabe

Two Irish wig salesmen, one Catholic and one Protestant, grapple with profiting from conflict amidst lucrative rival orders during the Troubles, risking their partnership while navigating dangerous territories and moral dilemmas. Colm is a Catholic, and George is a poetry-loving Protestant. In Belfast, Northern Ireland in the 1980s, they could have been enemies, but instead, they became business partners. After persuading a mad wig salesman known as the Scalper to sell them his leads, the two embark on a series of house calls, always in neighborhoods that are dangerous for one or the other partner. Then they find out they might lose their exclusive wig distributorship to competitors. Through a series of comic twists, the pair are given large orders for wigs by both sides of the Protestant and Catholic conflict. Should they compromise their principles in order to keep their business? Will it destroy their friendship? Could one of their wigs in the hands of the I.R.A. actually put one or both of them in jail, or even get them killed? —Miles Fowler

A young Irishwoman becomes governess to 3 daughters of a rich family in Spain in 1936, just before the civil war. The mom likes Franco - the dad doesn't. She becomes family. She befriends 5 Irishwomen. This is the story of a young Irish woman who comes to Spain to escape from the pressures she feels about her impending marriage to a political activist in Ireland. But in Spain in the 1930's, taking a job of governess in a wealthy family, she finds the same kinds of political unrest. In fact, it isn't long before she finds herself attracted to a married man who is similarly involved in the struggle against fascism and Franco. This awakens her to her nature that brings her to such men and resolves for her what she must do about the life she left in Ireland. —BOB STEBBINS <stebinsbob@aol.com>

When a field (which has been farmed by the McCabe family for generations) goes up for auction, the patriarch of the McCabe family will stop at nothing to prevent a rich American from buying it. "Bull" McCabe's family has farmed a field for generations, sacrificing endlessly for the sake of the land, and when the widow, who owns the field, decides to sell the field in a public auction, McCabe knows that he must own it. But while no one in the village would dare bid against him, an American with deep pockets decides that he needs the field to build a highway. The Bull and his son decide to convince the American to give up bidding on the field, but things go horribly wrong. —Kathy Li