Book Summary and Reviews of Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

Ellis Island

A Poignant Love Story of Irish Immigration and a Woman's Choice in 1920s America

by Kate Kerrigan

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  • Published:
  • Jun 2011, 368 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

With her husband injured serving the IRA, an Irish woman is forced to become an American socialite's maid in this epic saga set in the 1920s.

Sweethearts since childhood, Ellie Hogan and her husband, John, are content on their farm in Ireland—until John, a soldier for the Irish Republican Army, receives an injury that leaves him unable to work. Forced to take drastic measures to survive, Ellie does what so many Irish women in the 1920s have done and sails across a vast ocean to New York City to work as a maid for a wealthy socialite.

Once there, Ellie is introduced to world of opulence and sophistication, tempted by the allure of grand parties and fine clothes, money, and mansions…and by the attentions of a charming suitor who can give her everything. Yet her heart remains with her husband back home. And now she faces the most difficult choice she will ever have to make: a new life in a new country full of hope and promise, or return to a life of cruel poverty ... and love.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Kerrigan is excellent at evoking both rustic Ireland and 20th-century New York." —Publishers Weekly

"Brisk and pleasant." —Booklist

This information about Ellis Island was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Kate Kerrigan

Kate Kerrigan is the author of three previous novels. She lives in Ireland with her husband and their two sons.

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