About this item
From the bestselling author of What Was Mine-a deeply moving family drama about a young Irish immigrant, an ancestral home in New England and a dark secret that lay hidden in its walls for five generations.In 1908, sixteen-year-old Bridey runs away from her small town in Ireland with her same-age sweetheart Thom. But when Thom dies suddenly of ship fever on their ocean crossing, Bridey finds herself alone and pregnant in a strange new world. Forced by circumstance to give up the baby for adoption, Bridey finds work as a maid for the Hollingworth family at a lavish, sprawling estate. It's the dawn of a new century: innovative technologies are emerging, women's roles are changing, and Bridey is emboldened by the promise of a fresh start. She cares for the Hollingworth children as if they were her own, until a mysterious death changes Bridey and the household forever. For decades, the terrible secrets of Bridey's past continue to haunt the family. And in the present day, the youngest Hollingworth makes a connection that finally brings these dark ghost stories into the light. Told in interweaving timelines and rich with detailed history, romance and dark secrets, Helen Klein Ross' THE LATECOMERS spans a century of America life and reminds us all that we can never truly leave the past behind.
About the Author
Helen's third novel The Latecomers will be published by Little, Brown on November 6, 2018. Told in interweaving timelines, this story spans an American century, bringing steam engines, top hats and suffragettes into brilliant collision with cell phones, 9/11 and ancestry apps. Helen's poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, literary journals and in anthologies, including SHORT, published in 2014 by Persea Books. Her first novel, Making It: A Novel of Madison Avenue, published in 2013 by Gallery/Simon and Schuster, is an e-book featuring the first digital epilogue. Her bestselling novel What Was Mine, published in 2016, tells the tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby from a shopping cart and gets away with it until the baby turns 21. Helen is also the creator and editor of a poetry anthology, The Traveler's Vade Mecum, from Red Hen Press. Over 80 poets-- including Frank Bidart, David Lehman and Billy Collins-- wrote to telegram titles from an 1853 compendium that provides a glimpse into habits and social aspects of nineteenth-century America. Helen lives in New York City and Lakeville, Connecticut where she is on the board of a haven for book lovers:
