"It's not really a novel about potatoes; it's really a novel about sex and death...and various types of hunger." That is how author Peter Behrens described his award winning novel, "The Law of Dreams" during his appearance as the University's second Distinguished Lecturer, speaking on "Potatoes, The Surprise of the World: Experience and Imagination in the Wake of the Irish Potato Famine."

Behrens' novel is set in the mid 1800's during the Great Irish Potato Famine and follows the journey of Fergus O'Brien.  Fifteen-year-old Fergus is forced to leave the mountain on which he has lived his whole life, after blight wipes out their entire potato crop. The book details his journey from Ireland to America on his quest to make a better life for himself.

            In his lecture Behrens explained that the story is based on his own great-grandfather's experience when his family migrated to Canada after the famine. He recalled going on Sunday drives in Montreal with his grandfather and passing by a memorial in the Irish community of Griffintown. The monument is a plain, black rock that marks the spot where the discovery was made of a mass grave, holding those who had died in Canada during the famine years.

            Behrens described the memorial as being "a place of terrible and shameful memories."

            He said that the affects of the famine were still being seen and felt when he was growing up and can still be felt today. He spoke of one of his many visits to Ireland during a time when Ethiopia was suffering a famine. He said that it was all that was talked about on the news and the Irish did all they could to offer help and support to the Ethiopians.

            The Irish Potato Famine, or the Great Hunger, as it was also called, occurred during the 1840's, when blight swept over the country and destroyed potato crops almost overnight. For the millions of Irish who lived in poverty potatoes were the only means they had to live on, and the loss of their crops meant death. Millions of Irish began to immigrate to other European countries, Canada and the United States to escape their doomed existence in Ireland. Behrens empathized with them, saying that they left their country, not knowing what was in store for them, but knew that there was no way it could be any worse than what they were already dealing with.