Galway Bay Book

Honora has been pledged to the Catholic church, to join their order of nuns, when one ordinary day, a tall dark stranger walks out of the sea on the Bay of Galway, and then walks up to her. They know that they are deeply in love at first sight! I know this must sound like a mushy gushy romance novel but it is actually the historical tale of Honara, Michael and their devotion to their children and family. This is a thoroughly researched novel based on the author's great, great grandmother who survived the potato famine and left Ireland with her sister Maire and eight children between them for Amerikay (what they called America). After trying to hold out through the genocide by starvation of the British rule and the combination of the blight of their mainstay food, potatoes, they finally decide to make the journey to a safe place to survive. Little did they know that the road ahead wasn't all that they had dreamed of, but offered such great challenges that they had to show their true strength to survive. They arrived in New Orleans where the weather was warm and there was plenty to eat but Honara was determined to go to Chicago, still a frontier town, where Michael's brother, a union organizer and rebel, had last been seen. They set out on a boat going upriver and arrive on Chicago's outskirts only to find they are not as well received as they had expected to be and their survival in this frontier town depended on extreme fortitude by all of them.

This is a truly great saga of the changing times of family life in Ireland and America. I enjoyed every word, every page and would love to read the sequel if there ever is one!