Submitted by Ashley Sweeny.

Author Ashley Sweeny will be at Griffin Bay Books at Jan. 12 at 2 p.m. for her newest novel, “The Irish Girl.”

“The Irish Girl” tells the story of Mary Agnes Coyne, forced from her family home in western Ireland after an accusation of incest. Coyne endures an arduous sea voyage alone across the Atlantic in the fall of 1886. With only a few pounds to her name and a letter to a parish priest in hand, she begins a new life in America. From the tenements of New York to the rough alleys of Chicago, Coyne suffers the bitter taste of prejudice for the crime of being poor, Catholic and Irish. Based on the author’s great-grandmother’s story, “The Irish Girl” has been named one of the “Top 24 Historical Fiction Titles for 2024” by BookBub.

Bio:

A native New Yorker, Sweeney is the Nancy Pearl Book Award-winning author of four novels, “Eliza Waite,” “Answer Creek,” “Hardland” and “The Irish Girl.” A graduate of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, Sweeney lives and writes in La Conner.

Reviews:

“Sweeney imbues her prose with a gentle Irish lilt. Her depictions of life in Ireland, the tortuous journey across the Atlantic, and Mary A.’s experiences as a young immigrant, complete with the rampant bigotry and misogyny of the era, are always vivid and compelling.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The novel’s strength lies in its deep, emotionally charged descriptions of Irish immigrants’ quest to be established in America.” — Historical Novels Review

“For readers of historical fiction featuring resilient women.” — Booklist