📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ The Letter Home by Rachael English

 

Headline Review 

e-Book 3 February 2022

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

A faded letter. A mother lost. A daughter found..

When journalist Jessie Daly loses everything she holds dear, she travels home to Ireland's west coast, and helps an old friend researching life during the famine. Jessie becomes drawn into the heartbreaking story of a brave young mother, Bridget Moloney, and her daughter, Norah.

On the other side of the ocean, in Boston, Kaitlin Wilson is researching her family tree. She unearths a fascinating story, but her research forces her to confront uncomfortable truths about the past, as she uncovers an unexpected connection to Ireland in famine times.

Generations before, in the small town of Boherbreen, a young mother faced a heart-wrenching choice: to watch her baby girl perish with hunger, or to start out for a new life in America, alone, in order to protect the one she loves most...

📖 My Review.. 

There are a few authors on my list who I know will never let me down and Rachael English is one such storyteller. From the start of The Letter Home I was engrossed in the way that the past, and the present, are brought to life in a family drama which spans generations and which tugs away at the heartstrings.

Initially set in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century, at the height of the potato famine, we meet Bridget Maloney and her young daughter Nora who are facing the worst hardships imaginable. We then move forward to the present day and meet, Jessie and Kaitlin, two very modern young women who are separated by an ocean but who discover in searching for clues about their family history that there are secrets which have been hidden away for generations. 

Beautifully written, and impeccably researched, I enjoyed all the many different aspects of The Letter Home. The history, and hardship, of nineteenth century Ireland comes alive but then so does the present day with all its modern challenges and I found that I enjoyed reading Jessie and Kaitlin's story as much as Bridget's decision to say goodbye to everything she loved. By carefully threading together the missing pieces of this family history we encounter every emotion from sadness and despair, through to acceptance and remembrance.

The heartbreaking connection to the past is what binds future generations together and The Letter Home is a poignant story about surviving incredible hardship and of making a brave new start against all odds.

About the Author

Rachael English is a bestselling novelist and presenter on Ireland’s most popular radio show, Morning Ireland. During more than twenty years as a journalist, she has worked on most of RTE Radio’s leading current affairs programmes, covering a huge range of national and international stories. The American Girl, The Night of the Party and The Paper Bracelet were all top 5 Irish bestsellers.

@EnglishRachael #TheLetterHome

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