Whitethorn Woods / Maeve Binchly / 547 pages / Irish/Scottish Challenge

Wow! I feel as if I just finished War & Peace! Okay, so this tale set in the Irish countryside is not nearly so ponderous as War & Peace but it does contain a robust plethora of characters. At times it is confusing on audio as we're not quite sure who is speaking. In the Whitethorn Woods, outside the town of Rossmore is the shrine of St. Ann's Well. So many visitors. as well as locals, visit the well with their supplications that the town has quite the traffic congestion. A new highway has been proposed that will bypass the town, but cut through the woods and endanger the well. The town curator, Father Bryan Flynn, and his family feature prominently in the storytelling and the controversy. The ending is quite satisfying.