The Girl WHo Came Home: A Novel Of The Titanic by Hazel Gaynor

Publisher: William Morrow
Date: April 1st 201
Pages: 384
Source: Publisher for review

Maggie Murphy is a seventeen year old girl living in the small town of Ballysheen, Ireland. Her life is going to change drastically. as she is about to sail with a group of fourteen others on the Titanic to America. Both her parents died,Kathleen has come to Ireland and is taking Maggie back to Chicago with her. While there, others have decided to join them in making the journey. Maggie is sad to be leaving her boyfriend, Seamus, behind. His father is sick so he won't be able to come, but tells her he'll be waiting for her to come home. 

Altough the main focus of the story, there are a few other characters that make an appearance. Harry is a young man who is one of the stewards on the ship, and who is the one that helps Maggie escape the sinking Titanic in the last lifeboat. Frances is a maid in the wealthy Walker-Brown family. Frances niece Katie is sailing to America on the Titanic too, as is the daugher of the Walker-Brown: Vivienne. Vivienne is an actress and is traveling with her tiny dog on the Titanic. When the news that the Titanic sank reaches New York, Frances is out of herself as she fears for the fate of Katie. While the Titanic travels across the Atlantic and eventually hits the iceberg, Maggie writes in her diary about all their days on the ship of dreams.

The book switches in time, from 1912 when Maggie boards and travels on the Titanic, to 1982. There the reader met's Grace, who is Maggie's granddaughter. Grace's life was going well until her father died. She left college and her boyfriend, Jimmy, to help her mother. Maggie starts to help her get her life back, starting with telling her about her journey on the Titanic, a story she has never told anyone. Learning her great-grandmother's story gives Grace the courage to move on with her life.

When the story of Maggie get's attention in the media, Grace get's a call from an man who claims he has the coat that Maggie lost when the Titanic sank. The coat that contained the letters of her dear Seamus...

The Girl Who Came Home is the perfect read for everyone who loves historical fiction.Most of it is told in flashback so there's a lot of jumping back and forth. I didn't find it to be confusing and actually liked it. It was very interesting to read about Maggie and Harry's, and the side character's journey on the Titanic and the people who stayed behind in Ireland or waited for relatives to get off the ship in New York.I liked also that the author didn't focused too much on the sinking, it all was about the characters and if they survived or not.
One part of the Titanic story that is focused on in this book, is the waiting in uncertainty about the fate of their loved ones that family had to endure, while waiting for the Carpathia to arrive in the docks of New York. I thought this was brilliantly done and at some points heartbreaking when family found out their loved ones wheren't coming back.

This novel is beautifully set out. and very touching. I can not recommend The Girl Who Came Home highly enough to all readers. I do hope that many readers will enjoy this novel of the Titanic as much as I have.