The Unremembered

What a nice surprise to find a book that was a beautifully told piece of historical fiction written by an author that was previously unknown to me. When seventeen year old Mairead Kelly leaves a plague ridden starving Ireland in the mid nineteenth century she journeys by ship to Liverpool, England. En route she meets other refugees who become an integral part of her life’s story.

Alone and frightened, she has no choice but live in squalor, an unwanted foreign outsider, shunned by the native born British. Determined to have a better life than the one she left, Mairead perseveres through unthinkable horrors. Food is scarce. Her church is welcoming but rigid and unforgiving. Typhus is rampant and killing off huge numbers of the poor who live in filthy tight quarters. She is surrounded by sickness and death. Her family faces challenges at every turn which affect the sustainability of their very lives.

This is a story about resilience in the face of extreme hardship and persecution, the power of love- being loved and loving in return, about the bonds of friendship that heal the soul, hope that gives one a reason to live until the next day, and the timeless brutality that is faced by the indigent of the world. .

At a time when kindness and brotherhood are often forgotten and hoards of struggling refugees are seeking a better life, The Unremembered , tells a story that is both important and compelling. Four glowing stars for a book that taught me about a part of history that is repeating itself right now. I enjoyed it immensely and will look for this author in the future. It is being published quite soon, April 28, 2024. Look for it. Many thanks to NetGalley and Trubador for an ARC in return for my unbiased review.

Set in Victorian Liverpool, this is a tale of a young woman who escaped the famine of Ireland, seeking pastures new in England.

There is a clear divide between the Irish and the English, and Mairead had her mind set on wanting more for her own children than she had in her previous life.

Tragedy, love, heartache and laughter, this story way so beautifully written; and it is also the first book that has made me cry.

Bravo to the author. Such a lovely story.

1800s, Irish Famine
Mairead Kelly flees her poor life to Liverpool. She pulls herself up as she continues to hold onto a secret. A good story that really pulled at my heart.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a novel intensely charged with emotion. The writing is passionate and poignant using a very real historical backdrop. In the years following the awful potato famine in Ireland, in the late 1840s, Liverpool became home to thousands of displaced Irish Catholics. Their uneasy relationship with the English Protestants is captured perfectly in these pages. Tragedy is never far away.
The author handles a large cast of characters with as much apparent ease as Charles Dickens did in his novels highlighting the awful living conditions of the poor in Victorian England.
It is impossible not to be moved by the plight of several characters but there are many moments of hope and bravery too.