The Girl Who Came Home is a book about the Titanic’s voyage, inspired by the true story of the Addergoole 14. Maggie is a 17-year-old Irish orphan who is leaving her sweetheart behind to sail to the United States with her Aunt Kathleen and a dozen other friends from her small town to start a new life. Obviously, the boat sinks, and Maggie survives. Now that she’s 87-years-old, she’s finally ready to share her story with her granddaughter, Grace, who is struggling to move on after her own father’s death.
I struggled a bit to get through the earlier pages of this one… They are on the Titanic, and we all know it sinks. It’s just a given from the beginning. We know Maggie survives, since we meet her as an older woman early on, but we meet a lot of different characters who we know the odds are won’t survive. And the dialogue was a bit painful in places.
But, I really liked that the author focused on the steerage class passengers, since it’s a group that is more overlooked in accounts of the Titanic, probably because fewer survived. And the writing surrounding the iceberg and subsequent actions of the characters was really strong. I also enjoy learning new things about history, even when reading fiction, and this one dropped me down a rabbit hole reading more about the Addergoole 14 online. What a sad story, and Gaynor did a good job of capturing their hope for new, better lives, and their experience on the Titanic.
I also really enjoyed the love story between Maggie and Seamus, as well as the character of the third-class steward Harry. Harry, especially, came alive on the pages.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and the Book Club Girl at Harper Collins/William Morrow Publishing in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.