REVIEW
The Girl From Donegal literally swept me off my feet with its beautiful prose, endearing characters and breathtaking landscapes. To say I was captivated by all this novel offered is an understatement. This powerful dual timeline is brimming with love, passion, determination and wonder. Three courageous women are moulded by traumatic events yet transformed by the journeys they take, the choices they make and the men they encounter.
The Girl From Donegal pulls fiercely on the heart strings, awakens a slumbering soul and uplifts the struggling spirit. It is so easy to fall into step with these fascinating characters and walk a mile in their shoes. For Carmel Harrington has such a way with words, she just glides us into each scene. My emotions were all over the place as the drama unfolded in both timelines. I felt fear, sadness, sympathy and apprehension but also expectancy, joy, love and relief.
We first meet eighty-nine year old Kate in the Prologue at Palm Tree Cottage, Bermuda, with her vintage cookie tin (which was also her mother’s sewing box). It is now ‘the gatekeeper to Kate’s memories.’ This passage is a wonderfully warm account of her memories. We also feel the love of this woman’s mother in the description. But those memories are laced with sorrow. As Carmel beautifully writes: ‘Grief was its own mistress, coming and going as she saw fit, no matter how long someone was gone from you. And just when you thought you could bear the unbearable, she came back for more.’ Her story is moving and as it unfolds, so will the tears!
Our first encounter with lovely Eliza in 1939 is on a Donegal beach in Ireland. She is thinking about the love of her life, her late fiancé Davey, who died years earlier in the Irish Civil War. The sandy shores of Ballymastocker Bay holds many of her best memories. Here we learn about her childhood, growing up with Davey and a vivid description of who he was and his importance in her life. While lost in her thoughts of the last time she felt an embrace, she has a chance encounter on her favourite beach with a kind and gentle Royal Navy officer named Matthew from Northern Ireland. He falls madly in love with her at first sight. Though her heart still mourns for Davey, after much contemplation, she decides to move forward with her life and prepares to head to Bermuda where Matthew is stationed.
Eliza boards the SS Athenia with mixed emotions but on route she begins to unwind until the unthinkable happens, and survival becomes her number one mission along with trying to help others escape as best she can. When she first entered the ship, she met an Irish couple with two children. They become friends. Little do each of them know the importance of their crossed paths and how it will affect their lives. Eliza bonds with the lively five year old girl, Kate, and helps take care of her while her parents take a much-earned break. But it is on this evening when trouble strikes. And everything changes.
A focal point in the story is the fated passenger ship. Placing Eliza and other characters on the SS Athenia is a clever move as it brings history to life: giving us a strong connection to the past. Many were fleeing England, Ireland and a number of European countries to evade the clutches of Hitler. So, for civilians to find themselves trapped in their own battle in the middle of the ocean on a steam turbine passenger liner, defenceless and unprepared, it would have been a frightening experience. And Carmel, being the word wizard she is, paints a clear picture of what it may have been like. Transporting us to that first ship torpedoed by a U-Boat in World War II allows us to imagine the fear and panic the passengers felt as they scrambled to find their loved ones and then sought out a lifeboat. In this treacherous hour, children were separated from their parents in the stampede to safety. Two children in the fictional account of The Girl From Donegal provide an inside view. One is five year old Kate and the other a boy who is separated from his father by the events. Eliza takes them under her wing and tries to help them find their way back to their parents. Of course, there are obstacles and disappointments on the journey that put me on the edge of my seat.
Saoirse in the present day, takes a trip from her home in Ireland and heads to Bermuda for her aunt Kate’s 90th birthday. Saoirse is engaged to be married to an Irish farmer. But she harbours a secret. With unfinished business in Canada, she leaves her aunt’s home to take a side trip to the Alberta Rockies where she worked for a year as a ranch hand. It was here she got seriously involved with a rodeo guy. But things did not end well and although nine years have passed, the exit from the relationship still haunts her. She returns for closure before embarking on her marriage to the Irishman. But surprises await her and she must make some hard decisions.
This novel moves freely between the three settings: Ireland, Canada and Bermuda with three Irish women. Each dealing with major life dilemmas. Each needing to make hard choices but through the stories shared of Eliza (who has passed on) and as Kate opens up about her past, young Saoirse is able to learn from them and sort out her own romantic issues. Everything comes together in a wonderful blend of hope, strength, restoration and healing.
There are some great twists in this novel. Not as predictable as one might think: especially in the area of Eliza with her choices and the outcome. Carmel certainly builds the tension in this area and the climax holds quite a surprise!
I could rave on about The Girl From Donegal as it moved my heart in so many ways. But now I just need to say to everyone: read it, weep, laugh, sigh and feel its love and wonder. This glorious novel should not be missed. 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Many thanks to HarperCollins Uk for my review copy.
