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During the summer of 2019 while on a tour of Scotland, I and my fellow travelers stopped at Urquhart Castle, the ruins of which rest on the banks of Loch Ness. Visiting the dungeon there, I read a placard that mentioned the name of its most famous prisoner, Domhnull Donn, a cattle thief who had been executed not so much because he was a reiver but because he had the audacity to fall in love with the laird’s daughter, Mary Grant. When I asked the tour guide for further information about this doomed pair, he really didn’t know a whole lot beyond what was stated there on the display.
For some reason, I just couldn’t shake the memory of the castle, the dungeon, and the two lovers themselves, so when I got home to New York, I started digging around to find whatever I could about Donal and Mary. During that research, I found a wonderful book by William Mackay called, "Urquhart and Glenmoriston, Olden Times in a Highland Parish (1893)" which included intriguing comments about Domhnull, calling him "the Rob Roy of his generation" who "had more poetry in his soul than the famous Macgregor had." In addition, Mackay also recounted Domhnull's capture, his final days, and even his last words before succumbing to the ax. I started to think, What kind of love could be so strong that it would be worth dying for?
Right then, I knew I had my hands on a tremendous story!
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
What is it that lures the present to the past and the past to the present? Is it a love so powerful that it can only transcend time? “There are many bargains one makes in life: honor for power; integrity for wealth; character for renown.” The power of the written word can outshine all these feats, but for Donal Donn, an aspiring seventeenth-century poet, his love for Mary, daughter of the laird of Undlay, is more powerful to him than anything he can write. And now, his forbidden love with someone above his station will have him meet his doom. In Catherine Hughes’ In Silence Cries the Heart, two star-crossed lovers will challenge the confines of time as a twenty-first-century schoolteacher, Caitlyn Hegarty, finds herself entangled in the tragic history of the doomed lovers as Mary’s voice rings true through Caitlyn’s heart. Can Caitlyn unravel the mystery and set things right?
Catherine Hughes’ novel, In Silence Cries the Heart, was inspired by the true story of Domhnull Donn and Mary Grant. Taking the facts of history and intermingling them with fiction, the author has woven a tapestry of parallel plots set in the seventeenth and the twenty-first centuries. The narrative effectively sets the stage, both past and present, and lures the reader into the web of plots and subplots of both eras. The story is told in the first person narrative from multiple points of view, and each person speaking is identified at the beginning of the chapter in which they tell their side of the story. The author shares her passion for history and literature, including quotes from the poetry penned by Donn. At the end of the novel, the author shares some interesting historical facts about the characters and events that are the makings of this epic story. A fascinating and engaging read.
