Out of Ireland: A Novel

Eileen Sullivan and her brother Michael are living in tumultuous times in 186y Ireland. Eileen is set to marry an older man she barely knows and certainly does not love while her older brother Micheal’s restlessness finds a home in membership in the Irish Republican Brotherhood. This is the powerful core of Marian O’Shea Wernicke’s novel Out of Ireland.

The problem, though, is that Out of Ireland opens on Eileen’s deathbed scene in America, so the curiosity and wonder at what will befall her is mute. Readers know she survives whatever awful moment she suffers and that she will grow old and have a loving family around her when she dies. It’s an unfortunate start given that the heart of the novel is compelling.

Eileen’s unhappy marriage eventually takes her to America where Michael has already fled under threat to his life. Brother and sister must forge a new life and a new sense of family in a strange land far from the customs and traditions of their roots.

The elements of historical fiction and rendering of the Irish/British conflict, as well as the deep love between the two siblings, makes Out of Ireland highly readable if, at times, largely predictable.