My thoughts
What a fantastic debut novel. This author is definitely one to watch for.
This book takes you into the lives of Irish Nuns and an orphanage. Also into the lives of twins Aelish and Isabel McGuire. What happens to them after they lost their home and their parents.
Aelish decides to join the order and become a nun. Isabel is a very outgoing young woman/child and only wants to be free and enjoy life. Both have a lot going on in their lives. One more pain and hurt.
Aelish thinks her life is complete as a nun. She gives her all to being a good person. A god fearing person. She's young.
Isabel married her first love, Declan. They have twins together. A boy and girl. Isabel is very sick and Declan sends for Aelish who of course comes to help. Aelish has always loved Declan too. He was her one and only when she was young though nothing ever really happened beyond a very chaste kiss on the cheek. Now she is living in the same house and taking care of her nephew and niece while Isabel heals. If she does.
This story jumps from the beginning, 2016, back to the 1940s and then from the 40s to the 50s, so you get a whole image of what happened and what is happening. You get to know a couple of the nuns and possibly will like one. One I truly disliked with all my being. She was so cruel to the children in the orphanage. Like they could help being there. Like they chose to be without their parents and family. I never liked her throughout this whole book.
There is also the part about the mother and baby home. Where outrageous things happened to the unwed mothers and even the babies. Where young girls were sent to be punished for being pregnant and not married. It didn't matter whether it was their choice or not. Awful things happened there. It's not graphically written though. But you do get the gist of it all. Be sure and read the Acknowledgement at the end.
This book was well written and will give you lots of emotion. Many tears. A couple of chuckles also.
Thank you #NetGalley, #MelanieMaure, #HarperPerennial, #HarperCollins for this ARC. This is my true thoughts about this book.
Five big stars.
About
In the spirit of Heather Morris, Kate Quinn, and Pam Jenoff, an enthralling and deeply moving story that begins during World War II, about orphaned twin sisters in Ireland whose lives diverge for decades, until fate—and faith—reunite them in the twilight of their lives.
Orphaned during the Second World War, Aelish and Isabel McGuire—known as the twins of Belfast—are given over to the austere care of the Sisters of Bethlehem. Though they are each all the other has, the girls are propelled in opposite directions as they grow up. Rebellious Isabel turns her back on the church and Ireland, traveling to Newfoundland where she pursues a perilous yet independent life. Devout Aelish chooses to remain in Northern Ireland and takes the veil, burying painful truths beneath years of silence.
For decades the two are separated, each unaware of the other’s life. But after years of isolation Aelish is unexpectedly summoned to Newfoundland, where she and her estranged sister begin to bridge the chasm between them.
Reunion brings to light the painful secrets and seismic deceptions that have kept these sisters apart, leaving the McGuire twins to begin reconstructing their understanding about themselves as women and as family–what they know of love, hope, and above all, forgiveness.
A story of faith—in religion, in the world, and in one another— Sisters of Belfast is a heartbreaking, tragic, and deeply moving novel about survival and the enduring power of sisterhood.
Orphaned during the Second World War, Aelish and Isabel McGuire—known as the twins of Belfast—are given over to the austere care of the Sisters of Bethlehem. Though they are each all the other has, the girls are propelled in opposite directions as they grow up. Rebellious Isabel turns her back on the church and Ireland, traveling to Newfoundland where she pursues a perilous yet independent life. Devout Aelish chooses to remain in Northern Ireland and takes the veil, burying painful truths beneath years of silence.
For decades the two are separated, each unaware of the other’s life. But after years of isolation Aelish is unexpectedly summoned to Newfoundland, where she and her estranged sister begin to bridge the chasm between them.
Reunion brings to light the painful secrets and seismic deceptions that have kept these sisters apart, leaving the McGuire twins to begin reconstructing their understanding about themselves as women and as family–what they know of love, hope, and above all, forgiveness.
A story of faith—in religion, in the world, and in one another— Sisters of Belfast is a heartbreaking, tragic, and deeply moving novel about survival and the enduring power of sisterhood.
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