Review: The Girl who Came Home
The Girl who Came Home. Hazel Gaynor. Historical romance.
When there's something that you always want to do, there comes a time to do it, writes Brian Byrne. And if you don't do it at that time, then you probably never will. The trick is to know when the time comes.
For local writer Hazel Gaynor, the time came, and she noticed it. The result is her first novel, 'The Girl who Came Home'. It's a Titanic novel, in the sense that it is located on that ship of terrible tragedy, and in the places where some of the Irish passengers came from and where some survivors might have gone to.
Hazel has been fascinated by the story of the Titanic since she was a small child. Not for any particular reason, just that the enormity of the story grabbed her imagination when she first heard about it. She always gathered information about the tragic event, and any time she came across a related article she assimilated every word.
The fictional characters and the fictional Irish village in 'The Girl who Came Home' are all based on a real set of people, and a real village near Killala in Co Mayo. The 'Addergoole Fourteen' were a group of men and women from there who sailed on the Titanic. Only three survived. Today there is a strong Titanic heritage in Addergoole, concerned with properly preserving the memory of what was a massive loss to a small community.
Hazel's main character is Maggie Murphy, and it doesn't spoil the storyline to say that she survived the encounter with the iceberg. Another protagonist is Maggie's great-grand-daughter Grace, starting out on a career in journalism in the US. There are other people in the story, some close to Maggie, others who came in peripherally but in some cases became very important.
It may be the fact that Hazel was raised in Yorkshire which gives her a grasp of old rural life, but she captures in 'The Girl' a very believable depiction of a Mayo village in the early years of the 20th century, the hopes and fears of its people, and the small details of life at the time.
The book is written in a number of formats, flashbacks and flashforwards, letters from a lover, Maggie's private journal, actual telegrams from the ship. Through them all is the very clear detail of many aspects of the Titanic and its maiden voyage destined to be its final one. It is detail that only someone who has gathered a treasure chest of knowledge over many years could credibly provide.
'The Girl who Came Home' is a small treasury of love stories, among other things. It is primarily a woman's book, the main characters women, the perspective the particular romantic one from that side of the gender spectrum. But it is also a story of human journey, and the search for meaning and fulfillment on that journey.
It's a story well told, with some unexpected twists as it works its way to conclusion. It is only available in Kindle form on the Amazon website. But even if you don't have a Kindle, you can download it to your computer or your smartphone on the relevant free apps. It's worth doing, and worth reading.
In this centenary year of the Titanic tragedy, Hazel Gaynor has successfully reached a major moment on her own journey as a writer. We'll be reading more of them in coming years.
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