The Girl Who Came Home: a Novel of the Titanic

I picked up this book from one of the front displays in my local library.  Usually I don't read a lot of adult fiction, let alone adult historical fiction, but I saw the word Titanic and thought I would give it a try.  Apparently, I am just as gullible as everyone else when it comes to the Titanic.  Who knows why everyone is so interested in the ship and her disaster?!  Anyway. 

The Girl Who Came Home is historical fiction and therefore has some basis in real life but also in imaginary life (hence the fiction part).  The author, Hazel Gaynor, bases her characters loosely on a group of 14 individuals that left to travel together from a small town in Ireland.  This group is commonly called the Addergoole Fourteen...you can google them if you like.  The novel takes place in two time periods: 1912 and the 1980s as the Titanic survivor, Maggie, tells her granddaughter about the experience.  It might take you a few pages to get into the story but by the time I was halfway through I was engrossed.  It felt like they were real people.  And thankfully there was no language.  Gaynor also focuses on one aspect of the disaster that isn't often focused on: how the families felt as they waited anxiously to hear whether their family member had survived.  The author also wrote a very nice note telling her readers what and who was real. 

If you like historical fiction and are fascinated by the Titanic, then you'll like this one.