Set in the early 1950s, this book follows about three years in the life of Eilish Lacy, born and raised in Enniscorthy, Ireland. She has a head for numbers and an interest in bookkeeping and accounting, but can't find a job in the rough post-war economy. Her three brothers have all left home to find jobs in England, leaving her, her older sister Rose, and her mother in their family home. Without really discussing it with Eilish, Rose and her mother set in motion a plan for Eilish to emigrate to America- specifically, into the parish of Father Flood, an Irish priest living and working in Brooklyn. Eilish sets out on the week-long Atlantic sea crossing alone. In America, she lives in a boarding house filled with contentious roommates, works long hours in a department store, and lies awake heavy with homesickness every night. Slowly life improves: she enrolls in night classes at Brooklyn college and meets a charming Italian-American boy at a dance, who she is soon seeing three times a week. She writes many letters home, but the one things she is unable to say is how she really feels. When a family emergency calls her back to Ireland, Eilish has to make a choice- where will she spent the rest of her life? I listened to this as an audiobook and it made a long drive feel short.