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knitreadlife's review
3.0
An interesting book about a little-known aspect of Australia's history: the importation of ore than 4000 Irish girls and young women to become servants, wives and mothers in the new colonies. Conlon's style takes time to engage with, while the wrap-around contemporary story didn't work for me, but the book reimagines early lives with empathy and insight.
bgg616's review
5.0
This was 4.5 stars for me but I am bumping it up. I expected the story of the forced displacement to Australia of over 4,000 Irish girls aged 14-20 at the time of the Irish Famine in 1848 would be full of horrors. Thankfully the writer doesn't take this path. Instead she weaves a story about loss - loss of family, home, your country and language, and at the bottom of it all, the loss of identity. These stories were mostly forgotten, but thankfully a few histories and an Irish documentary exist.
In this book, which is historical fiction, there is great adherence to the history of these events. The contemporary protagonist is a Dublin woman who carves inscriptions on gravestones. She is invited to Australia to create a monument for these Irish women, and thus their story unfolds. This is a story that will stay with me. It is not only about Irish women, but all the women in the past whose stories have been lost or forgotten.
In this book, which is historical fiction, there is great adherence to the history of these events. The contemporary protagonist is a Dublin woman who carves inscriptions on gravestones. She is invited to Australia to create a monument for these Irish women, and thus their story unfolds. This is a story that will stay with me. It is not only about Irish women, but all the women in the past whose stories have been lost or forgotten.