Whispers Across a Sea
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Product Details
Publisher: CAH Publishing
Release Date: April 23, 2024
Formats: Paperback, Ebook
ISBN: PB: 979-8-9898260-0-1; EB: 979-8-9898260-1-8
Trim: 5.5 x 8.5
Page Count: 470
A Novel of Victorian Ireland
Christina Holloway
Whispers Across a Sea is a sweeping novel that follows three generations of the Anglo-Irish Young family in Victorian Ireland, where Irish desire for independence from Britain is building. How will the family evolve in the ever-changing social and political landscape of the country they call home?
In 1920, Ireland stands on the brink of civil war. Lucie returns to her familial home to settle the estate, where she uncovers an abundance of handwritten letters—a lifetime’s worth of cherished memories and guarded secrets between her mother and aunts—as well as her grandfather’s diary. As she reads through her findings, Lucie begins to wonder just how well she knew her relatives and the circumstances of their lives. Norah, a close childhood friend and the daughter of a former family servant, helps her work through the notes, and their conversations remind Lucie that she and Norah live in very different worlds. Norah is Irish; Lucie is Anglo-Irish. As the two women look into the past, it becomes evident that Norah has always known more about Lucie’s life than Lucie has ever understood of Norah’s. And Lucie realizes that she has been unaware of the disquiet in Ireland’s streets—but then again, the elder members of her family, so completely involved in their own lives, didn’t appear to notice either. . . .
Whispers Across a Sea is a compelling novel that traces three generations of Lucie’s Anglo-Irish family as they navigate the nuances of life in their adopted country of Ireland. Within the home, the family’s Irish servants make sure the lives of the Youngs remain comfortable while silently observing their employers’ detachment from the realities of life in Ireland—a country where a lengthy, violent, and divisive struggle is beginning. How long will the Youngs be able to close their eyes to the shifting world outside their door?
Based on a true story, Christina Holloway’s carefully researched and vividly imagined historical novel opens a window into Ireland in the late 1800s—a time of vast privilege, inequality, turmoil, and change.
About the Author
Christina Holloway is a leader in environmental education and land conservation in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her passion for environmental activism began in April 1970, when she pushed her four-month-old son in a stroller in the first ever Earth Day march. Christina resides on the Stanford campus with her husband, a retired professor and founder of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Graduate School of Business. They have three children and seven grandchildren.
Visit the author’s website at christinahollowayauthor.com
Reviews
“Inspired by the stories of her ancestral past—those shared and unearthed—Christina Holloway takes us back in time and across generations in this tender, colorful reimagining of her Anglo-Irish roots.” —Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones
“Enchanting. Riveting. Believable. Whispers Across a Sea is a captivating historical novel, set in Ireland and Canada between 1873 and 1921. From her grandmother Lucie Franz, Christina Holloway inherited a treasure trove of family letters and memorabilia, a fascination for Irish history, and the keen ability to tell Lucie’s Anglo-Irish family story. Whispers is a must-read.” —Scott Pearson, professor emeritus, Stanford University
“Historical novels help us better understand our current world. Whispers Across a Sea offers a moving portrait of one Anglo-Irish family as they courageously confront conflict and change. Absorbing, familiar, and delightful.” —Hadley Dynak, coauthor of It’s a Good Day to Change the World
“In this multifaceted and moving historical novel, Christina Holloway shines a light on her beloved grandmother’s life in late Victorian Ireland. Through the microcosm of the author’s Irish forebears, we glimpse a society of increasing political and religious tensions as a result of centuries of oppression under British rule. An intimate snapshot of a time and place in preindependent Ireland, this book opens up many windows to the fraught history of this fascinating country.” —Stina Katchadourian, author of Efronia and The Lapp King’s Daughter
“In Christina Holloway’s debut novel, Whispers Across a Sea, a loving Anglo-Irish family living in nineteenth-century Dublin gradually awakens to the uncomfortable truth that their life of privilege is built on the backs of the native Irish, who live in poverty and turmoil. This is a beautiful tale of compassion, conflict, and perseverance.” —Kimberly Young, author of In the Event of Death
“A multigenerational cross-cultural epic that weaves the origin story of one woman with the broader histories of Canadian, Irish, English, and American families. What a gift to be lost in the world of the Young family, like being with Alcott’s little women or Austen’s sisters, the friendships and relationships are the beating heart of this generous novel.” —Kristine Zeigler, author of Cover This Country Like Snow and Other Stories and cofounder of New Nature Writers and Planet Women
“The narrative flows like a stream into an Irish world of the past: full of color, spirit, and a medley of distinctive characters. As one family’s story intermingles with its surrounding local and national histories, a bygone time comes alive on the page as if by magic or incantation.” —Robert Pogue Harrison, Rosina Pierotti professor of French and Italian literature at Stanford University, author of Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition
“Whispers Across a Sea journeys through time and space to bring nineteenth-century Dublin into vivid life, with its political rumblings and Irish charm. Holloway has the knack for making the past feel present, her working servants, artists, and teachers all fully formed. But most of all, this is a story of family, one with equal inclinations to adventure, freedom, and the powerful bindings of love. Drawing from letters, paintings, and tales of [her] own family’s generational moves, Holloway writes a warm and compelling tale for all of us.” —Sherri Hallgren, teacher, English Department, Phillips Academy Andover
“Some stories travel across the sea and through the generations, like a whisper that holds dear the inklings of who we were, are, and may become. Not even the sea can separate us from our individual stories and our universal truths in the endlessly churning narration that bridges us all.” —Audrey Gale, author of The Human Trial