The Irish Girl: A Novel

by Ashley E. Sweeney

Overview

From multi-award-winning historical fiction author Ashley E. Sweeney comes a family saga about the Irish immigrant experience spanning New York, Chicago, and Colorado so compelling that, USA Today best-selling author Kelli Estes says, “I read this story in one sitting.”

Thirteen-year-old Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her home in rural Ireland in 1886 after being accused of incest, endures a treacherous voyage across the Atlantic alone to an unknown life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Mary Agnes suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor and Irish.

After moving west to Colorado, Mary Agnes again faces hardships and grapples with heritage, religion, and matters of the heart. Will she ever find a home to call her own? Where?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647427764
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	12/10/2024
Pages:	344
Sales rank:	263,221
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

A native New Yorker, Ashley E. Sweeney is the winner of the Nancy Pearl Book Award and more than a dozen other awards for her previous novels, Hardland, Answer Creek, and Eliza Waite. The Irish Girl is based on her paternal great-grandmother’s story of coming alone from Ireland to America in the late 19th century. Sweeney lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest and Tucson.

Editorial Reviews

For readers of historical fiction featuring resilient women.”—Booklist

“The novel follows the story of Mary Agnes Coyne as she emigrates to America. . . . While it is fiction, the author relies extensively on oral history and memorabilia from her grandmother, whose mother's story this is. The selection and portrayal of details and the emotion they generate drive home the immediacy of the immigrant experience. The author shares encounters, perceptions, and feelings of one young woman facing exceptional difficulties. She makes us feel part of that life and those times.”—Historical Novels Review

“ . . . vivid and compelling . . . with a strong female lead who shines with resilience.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The Irish Girl is a story of resilience amidst trauma, love amidst loss, self-acceptance amidst rejection. Reminiscent of our immigrant ancestors and the unfathomable hardships they undoubtedly faced, I read this story in one sitting and found myself thinking about this fiercely strong girl long after I finished.”—Kelli Estes, USA Today best-selling author of The Girl Who Wrote in Silk


“Lyrical and powerful, The Irish Girl celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit. A novel to savor, an immersive and moving story of love and courage.”—Ginny Kubitz Moyer, author of A Golden Life

“Mary Agnes Coyne will be a girl after your own heart. Though too young, she must leave her village home in County Galway alone, and sail to America. Upon arrival in big cities of the U.S., nothing is easy, as is the case for many Irish in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But Mary Agnes has gifts: intelligence, clever humor, beauty, a clear sense of self, and Ashley E. Sweeney to exquisitely describe her story of struggle, perseverance, and optimism. Couldn’t put it down, and at the end, was left wanting more of The Irish Girl.”—Francine Falk-Allen, author of A Wolff in the Family and Not a Poster Child

“The heart-rending story of one young immigrant's search for home blooms into a redemptive and unforgettable tale in the capable hands of Ashley E. Sweeney. She effortlessly balances the harrowing misfortunes of being alone with moments that savor the sweetness of freedom, stitching the universal truths of self-determination and desire for a better life that tie us all together.”—Joanne Howard, author of Sleeping in the Sun

“The Irish Girl captured me from the very first page! At times both tragic and hopeful, this sweeping literary drama is ultimately a story of perseverance—one to which we can all relate somewhere in our immigrant past. Brimming with rich historical details and beautiful, lilting prose, this addictive book is a delight!”—Michelle Cox, author of The Henrietta and Inspector Howard series


“With the spunk of the Irish, Mary Agnes wins your heart from the start. With writing as lush as the Connemara countryside, The Irish Girl is a powerful story of a young woman’s discovery of hidden strengths against all odds—a story emblematic of the resilient American emigrant spirit that keeps the love of home country while embracing, wholeheartedly, the new.”—Debra Thomas, author of Luz


“Singing with drama, rooted in history, and rich in action, The Irish Girl’s independent and bold protagonist makes her way from Ireland to America at age thirteen in 1886. Pitted against the challenges of poverty, misogyny, and abuse, Mary Agnes Coyne navigates the twisty streets of New York and Chicago and expansive cattle ranches of Colorado and Santa Fe. But her longing for family and home is deep, and her search to find both leads to a gutsy conclusion. Sweeney’s fourth winner!”—Gretchen Cherington, author of Poetic License

From the Publisher

With the spunk of the Irish, Mary Agnes wins your heart from the start. With writing as lush as the Connemara countryside, The Irish Girl is a powerful story of a young woman’s discovery of hidden strengths against all odds—a story emblematic of the resilient American emigrant spirit that keeps the love of home country while embracing, wholeheartedly, the new.”

—Deborah Thomas

I fell deeply under the spell of The Irish Girl—a heroic yet relatable immigrant’s tale of a thirteen-year-old girl sent to America who faces every challenge with steely determination and, ultimately, hope.”

Martha Conway

This historical coming-of-age novel follows young Mary Agnes across the ocean as she seeks her place in the world and within her own soul. Sweeney shows the futility of trying to run from that which truly belongs to us, as well as the promise of finding that which does. A beautifully crafted story that will both transport and transfix readers.

Jude Berman

Singing with drama, rooted in history, and rich in action, The Irish Girl’s independent and bold protagonist makes her way from Ireland to America at age thirteen in 1886. Pitted against the challenges of poverty, misogyny, and abuse, Mary Agnes Coyne navigates the twisty streets of New York and Chicago and expansive cattle ranches of Colorado and Santa Fe. But her longing for family and home is deep, and her search to find both leads to a gutsy conclusion. Sweeney’s fourth winner!

Gretchen Cherington

“The Irish Girl is a story of resilience amidst trauma, love amidst loss, self-acceptance amidst rejection. Reminiscent of our immigrant ancestors and the unfathomable hardships they undoubtedly faced, I read this story in one sitting and found myself thinking about this fiercely strong girl long after I finished.”

—Kelli Estes

Mary Agnes Coyne leaps off the page, lively, troubled, hungry for life and love. The Irish Girl is another winner!

“Mary Agnes Coyne leaps off the page

The Irish Girl captured me from the very first page! At times both tragic and hopeful, this sweeping literary drama is ultimately a story of perseverance—one to which we can all relate somewhere in our immigrant past. Brimming with rich historical details and beautiful, lilting prose, this addictive book is a delight!”

Michelle Cox

2024-09-13
A young girl makes her way in America after emigrating from Ireland in Sweeney’s historical novel.

It is October of 1886 when 13-year-old Mary Agnes (called Mary A.) Coyne gives her beloved grandfather, Festus Laffey, a tearful goodbye hug and kiss. She is on her way to America—alone, frightened, and excited. Although she had dreamed of seeing the world beyond western Ireland, she had not expected to leave on her own at such a young age. But her mother throws her out of the house after her 15-year-old half-brother Fiach attempts to rape her, blaming Mary A. for the attack. Her grandparents offer her sanctuary from her violent father and vengeful mother, but her grandmother grows ill and can no longer care for her. Her grandparents arrange for Mary A.’s maternal uncle and his family, living in Chicago, to provide a home for her. Arriving in Manhattan, she goes to the church that is supposed to send her on to Chicago and learns that she must live with and work for an Irish family in New York before the priest will pay for her train ticket. One month later, Mary A. heads west. After a warm and effusive welcome, her uncle makes it clear she must find a live-in service job in one of Chicago’s prominent houses. Joy and sorrow await her. The poignant narrative is helmed by a sturdy young protagonist who faces a series of obstacles and injustices with courage, picking herself up after each emotionally challenging (and sometimes tragic) setback and pushing forward with determination. Sweeney imbues her prose with a gentle Irish lilt: “a beauty she were, that Laffey girl, when she were young; such a shame what happened to her, do you think it could have been her—no, no, best not to say, best not to say.” Her depictions of life in Ireland, the tortuous journey across the Atlantic, and Mary A.’s experiences as a young immigrant, complete with the rampant bigotry and misogyny of the era, are always vivid and compelling.

An addictive and frequently painful drama with a strong female lead who shines with resilience.

Kirkus Reviews