title: Rosie
author: McDonnell, John
description: The fourth book in the Rose Of Skibbereen saga, this one follows the family through the turbulent 1960s. The main character is Rosie Morley, granddaughter of Rose Sullivan Morley, who came from Ireland to Philadelphia in 1880 at the start of Book One. Rosie is a mercurial personality, a gifted singer but an impulsive, rash person who makes poor choices. When the story starts she is living in South Philadelphia, and she gets involved with some questionable characters in the music business. She has to leave the country for a while, and she ends up in the middle of Swinging London in time for the explosion of rock 'n' roll that started with the Beatles. While Rosie is living a freewheeling life in England, her son Pete is home in Philadelphia getting into trouble. He ends up in combat in Vietnam, while his grandmother Lucy throws herself into the Civil Rights Movement, following a charismatic preacher. And then there is Mercy, the stepsister Rosie has never met, who comes back to Philadelphia on a mission to find an old film of her father, the scoundrel James Francis (also known as Peter Morley). Mercy arrives just as the Cuban Missile Crisis is heating up, and people everywhere are fearful that nuclear war will break out. This book is full of drama in every chapter, as each character faces a crisis that makes him or her confront the big questions of Life.