The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic (P.S.)
Maggie didn’t discuss Titanic with anyone. At 17, she was leaving the man she loved as one of a group of Irish immigrants setting out for America. But 70 years later, as her great-granddaughter, Grace, is mourning her father’s death, Maggie decides it’s finally time to share her story. Inspired by the true tale of an Irish community that suffered the largest proportional loss in the sinking, the novel hits on the standard elements of the Titanic story—the ship’s magnificence, the stark differences between first and third classes, the many elements that contributed to its downfall. What makes Gaynor’s novel fresh is the way she sets the tragedy in the context of her characters’ lives. Gaynor is a gentle storyteller who doesn’t challenge the reader, writing prettily but at times predictably. At the same time, even the most avid Titanic buff is sure to find something new in this well-researched, finely detailed story. Just as Maggie’s retelling makes the disaster real for her great-granddaughter, Gaynor brings immediacy to the oft-told story by shrinking it to a human scale. --Bridget Thoreson