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.

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.

DNF at about 26%. The overarching story is interesting enough, but something about the way that it is written made it difficult to read. Dialogue is stilted and/or forced in many places, so perhaps this is a big reason why I didn’t feel like I could continue to read this book. Sorry.