Ellis Island

May 9, 2011
In her stateside debut, Kerrigan tells a familiar tale of an independent-minded woman born before her time. Childhood friends in early 20th-century Ireland, Ellie Hogan and John fall in love as teenagers, marry, and live happily in near-poverty in a rundown cottage. John works the land and fights for Irish independence, but after he's shot and the pair can't afford the surgery to repair his shattered hip, Ellie travels to America, where a friend has found well-paying work as a maid. Ellie promises John she'll be gone only be until she can send enough money to pay for his surgery, but once in America gets caught up in all New York has to offer and works her way up to an even better-paying job as a typist. And then there's the handsome and wealthy Charles Irvington, whose interest in Ellie forces an age-old choice. Kerrigan is excellent at evoking both rustic Ireland and 20th-century New York, and while the predictability and saccharine nature of the plot is disappointing, the atmosphere may be just enough to win readers over.

July 1, 2011
Ellie Flaherty falls in love with John Hogan when she's 8 and he's 10. An only child in a loveless family living near Kilmoy, Ireland, Ellie treasures the warmth of John's home. When at 18 she gives up her planned religious vocation to marry, Ellie is shunned by her parents but sustained by John's love as they eke out a living on his farm. But when conflict arises between Britain and Ireland, John joins the IRA and is wounded, needing an operation to walk again. Ellie's best solution is to go to America in 1920 to earn the money they need. Starting as a socialite's maid, she trains as a typist and comes to enjoy the comforts and excitement of life in New York. When John won't leave his beloved Ireland, she must choose between the freedom and luxury of America, where a man from a moneyed family falls in love with her, and the still-primitive conditions on the farm of the husband she still loves after three years of separation. A brisk and pleasant diversion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)