Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

The first in this historical fiction trilogy by Kate Kerrigan follows young Ellie Hogan as she comes of age, goes to boarding school, and marries her first love. Set in the 1920s, Ellis Island tells the tale of a young couple, so in love, trying to live their lives amid war torn Ireland as the Irish battle the British for Hole Rule (or the right to rule Ireland by the Irish). When Ellie's husband is injured in battle, and times get exceptionally tough, Ellie receives a letter from a friend in New York offering her a job as a lady's maid for a wealthy woman.

Promising to send money back to Ireland to pay for her husband's medical care, Ellie takes the job, setting sail for New York. After seeing the beckoning Statue of Liberty and making it through Ellis Island, Ellie realized just how different New York is. Having never been this far away from home before, Ellie starts to miss home, her "normal" life, and her husband, John.

Once she's finally settled into life in New York, this book follows the story of what it was like to be a young woman in the 1920s. Filled with 1920s fashion and cultural references, read along as Ellie encounters all of the new, exciting, and often overwhelming things that are changing in her life. While she starts to assimilate in New York, she can't help but feel like a piece of who she is was left behind in Ireland.

Kate Kerrigan writes this book in a way that makes you feel as if you're living in lush, green Ireland and traveling aboard the crowded RMS Celtic with Ellie. When she finally makes it to New York you can't help but relate to the awe-inspiring sight of  Statue of Liberty and the great hall of Ellis Island (especially if you've been there to see such an amazing, humbling historical sight). Be sure to read Ellis Island and the other books in this trilogy.

Check out Ellis Island @ the library today!

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

Two brothers, born in Calcutta in the 1940’s, are close in age but miles apart in temperament. Subhash, the older, is responsible and obedient while his brother, Udayan, is brash and passionate. The apolitical Subhash leaves India to attend graduate school in Rhode Island but returns after Udayan is killed by police for his radical political activities. Because he is unhappy with the bleak future his brother’s pregnant young widow faces in India, he marries her and takes her back to Rhode Island. Here Gauri gives birth to a baby girl, Bela, whom Subhash regards as a daughter rather than a niece. But Gauri cannot invest herself in this family. Despite his kindness and self-sacrifice, she cannot accept Subhash as a substitute for the soul mate who had been her first husband. She is unhappy and distant toward both him and Bela, preferring academic studies to motherhood. Subhash cannot try enough for the both of them and eventually the family separates in such a brutal way they can never reconcile. Yet life moves along. Gauri finds a career in academia in California and Subhash continues his career in Rhode Island. Bela, without knowing the story of her biological father, becomes a rebel in her own way, rootless, traveling across the country to promote sustainable agriculture but always anchored to Subash, her devoted “father”. The Lowland is a story of immigration and assimilation. But Gauri, burdened with anger and self-absorption, would have been as unhappy as a traditional Indian wife as she was as a displaced American one.

Check out The Lowland @ the library!

We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawyo

Darling is a ten year old girl living in an unnamed African country, probably based on Zimbabwe. She spends her days with a group of friends, children like her who have had their homes, schools and families destroyed by poverty and political violence. Unsupervised, they spend their days playing rough games, vandalizing property and stealing fruit from the trees in a wealthy neighborhood. Despite these activities, the essential innocence of the children is apparent in Darling’s telling of the story. Darling likes to brag to her friends that she will one day be joining her Aunt Fostalina in America and enjoy the all the benefits of life in that country. As a teenager, Darling does join her aunt in “Destroyed,” Michigan but the benefits she envisioned elude her. She misses the companionship of close friends because Americans choose isolation in their homes and apartments in front of televisions and computers. They don’t face hunger, but Americans either gorge themselves into obesity or starve themselves in order to be thin. School is not challenging and available jobs are menial and low-paying. Higher education is financially out of reach. Eventually Darling does make some American friends, but in place of running wild through the countryside, they watch pornography on the internet, drive illegally and hang out at the local mall.   Darling misses the family and friends she left behind in Africa but is unable to return and probably would no longer fit in if she could. Between two cultures, she faces a future of loneliness and dreams denied.  

Check out We Need New Names @ the library!