Morgan Llywelyn continues her own tour through the tortured years of Irish history with "1949: A Novel of the Irish Free State." This is Llywelyn's follow-up to earlier historical novels 1916 and 1921, which obviously covered key moments and figures in Ireland's history.

This time around, Llywelyn tells the story of Ursula Halloran, a young woman who comes of age in the 1920s. The bloodshed of Irish civil war eventually gives way to what Llywelyn sees as a repressive Catholic state led by Eamonn de Valera.

Llywelyn's focus is particularly upon how women experienced what can, with some irony, be called Irish "independence." Married women are penalized for holding jobs, and divorce is illegal. All the while, elements of the Irish Republican Army are still dedicated to violence and war.

Llywelyn even gives us a broader portrait of the Depression-wracked world always seemingly on the brink of conflict, from the Spanish Civil War to the impending nightmare of World War II.

Ursula ends up working for the Irish radio service and then the League of Nations. But her personal life is torn between emotions for an Irish civil servant and an English soldier. Things only get more complicated when Ursula becomes pregnant and must leave the country.

Once again, Morgan Llywelyn - who is planning at least two more books in her "Irish Century" cycle - makes history powerfully, almost disturbingly personal. (414 pages / $25.95 / Forge)