by Hazel Gaynor
First published 2014
Seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy boards the Titanic in 1912 with thirteen neighbors from her Irish village. They seek better lives in America, but Maggie's heart stays with Séamus, her sweetheart back home. When the ship sinks, Maggie becomes one of the few steerage passengers to survive. She wakes up alone in a New York hospital and decides never to speak about that horrific night. Seventy years later in Chicago, Grace Butler drifts without purpose after her father dies. Her great-grandmother Maggie finally reveals the painful truth she has carried since 1912. This confession gives Grace new direction and leads both women toward unexpected reunions with people they believed were lost forever. The story weaves between Ireland in 1912 and Chicago in 1982, showing how one night of terror echoes through generations.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Ireland, New York, Chicago
Period: 1912, 1982
384 pages · ebook · William Morrow Paperbacks
Content warnings: death