Moira’s Crossing
In the late 1920s, Ellis Island is seeing the last of its great waves of immigrants. Among these are two Irish sisters who bring with them little more than the clothes they wear and their late mother’s hope chest. Moira and Julia O’Leary appear as different as can be – one light and the other dark; one strong and bold, and the other frail and quiet. The two young women share a strong bond, however, one that is nearly as much about shared guilt as it is about family.
Within days of their arrival in Boston, the two find employment in domestic service. Four years into their new life, a chance meeting with one of their fellow Irish passengers results in marriage for Moira and yet another new life for both women.
Moira’s Crossing follows the O’Leary sisters for more than forty years, Moira remains somewhat enigmatic to the reader, but she claims our empathy and our hearts, for her weaknesses and her strengths are our own. Despite a reserved nature and ill health, Julia possesses an inner strength on which Moira relies heavily. Julia’s self-realization is achingly gradual and would never happen at all were it not for her devotion to – and subtle rivalry with – Moira.
Through narrative so sensitively crafted that it often seems to flow straight from the minds of her characters, Shea ushers us into the lives of real people whose loves, triumphs and heartbreaks mirror our own.
