The Girl Who Came Home

In 1912, fourteen people from one small Irish village board RMS Titanic, bound for America and the hope of a better life. Among them is seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy. She is leaving behind Séamus, the sweetheart she loves, and the crossing is bittersweet.

When the ship goes down, Maggie is one of the few steerage passengers to survive. She wakes alone in a New York hospital and vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that night.

A second strand follows Chicago in 1982. Grace Butler has lost her father and cannot decide what to do with her life. Her Great Nana Maggie then shares a painful family secret about the Titanic that she has kept for almost a lifetime, and it gives Grace a new sense of direction.

This is historical fiction with a dual timeline, inspired by true events and mixing fact with invention. It looks at how the sinking marked the survivors and the generations after them. The tone is emotional and sombre, with a love story running through it. The two timelines move toward reunions with people Maggie and Grace believed were lost long ago.