The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic by Hazel Gaynor ~ Book Review

It is 1912 and seventeen year old Maggie Murphy has just lost her mother due to an illness and is devasted and alone as her father is also passed away.  When her mother's sister, who had been helping care for her mother, makes the executive decision to move Maggie back to her home in America with her, Maggie is heartbroken.  Though America sounds exciting and a great opportunity, she is must bid goodbye to the love of her life, Seamus, not knowing if she will ever see him again.  She asked Seamus to join them, but he feels he must stay as his Dad also is not doing well.  Boarding the Titanic with a pocketful of letters from Seamus, she is both filled with anticipation and yet grieving.  Onboard, her take charge aunt soon is sheparding Maggie and the group of girls in their cabin.  When a young steward befriends the group of girls they get to experience parts of the Titanic they never thought they could being steerage passengers.  Maggie makes sure to keep a journal so that she could tell Seamus all about the great trip.  But then unthinkable happens.

Meanwhile in 1982,  Grace Butler is struggling to make life decisions.  Just as she was offered the journalistic internship everyone covets her father suddenly passes away.  Her reaction to his death is to shut herself off from college life, her internship and her boyfriend and go home to take care of her mom who is not only suffering from grief but an illness of her own.  Now after two years her mom is doing well and Grace is feeling adrift.  When her grandmother pulls her aside and reveals to her that she was a survivor of the the Titanic and gives her journal to Grace, Grace is shocked that her grandmother wants to now talk about it and to her, no less.  No one was to ever mention the Titanic around her and she had never spoken about it to anyone. But now her grandmother wants her story told and wants Grace to do it. 

Inspired by the group of Irish emigrants who left their homes in the same small, impoverished town in Ireland, this small group represented the greatest proportional loss of life from one region when 11 of their 14 perished when the Titanic sank.  Though the town name was changed in the story and each main character represented a combination of people from the group and their names also were changed, this was a beautiful story of this great tragedy.  I love Titanic stories but had never yet read a story that dealt with this group of emigrants.  The author's good research was evident in the story and it is chock full of rich details of what steerage would have been like and how it compared to affluent decks above them.  The character's from this group were endearing and the author was really able to bring out a connection to them.  I could not put this story down especially when you knew the time for the collision was coming.  I wondered if the author would handle it well and rest assured she did.  I felt like I was there with the steerage passengers and what they would have been going through.  The author was also able to really portray what it would have been like for those waiting back home for word about their loved ones through the swirl of confusion amid reports about the sinking.   I hadn't really heard of that perspective in Titanic stories before.  It was heartbreaking.  This book brought out every emotion.  The author's notes at the back are a must read.  Highly recommend.  I loved it!

I gave it a 10/10