The Ninth Hour: A Novel
From National Book Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize Finalist Alice McDermott, The Ninth Hour is the critically-acclaimed "haunting and vivid portrait of an Irish Catholic clan in early twentieth century America" (The Associated Press).
One of TIME Magazine's Top Ten Novels of the Year
A 2017 Kirkus Prize Finalist
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book
On a dim winter afternoon, a young Irish immigrant opens a gas tap in his Brooklyn tenement. He is determined to prove--to the subway bosses who have recently fired him, to his pregnant wife--that "the hours of his life . . . belonged to himself alone." In the aftermath of the fire that follows, Sister St. Saviour, an aging nun, a Little Nursing Sister of the Sick Poor, appears, unbidden, to direct the way forward for his widow and his unborn child.
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Luck.
This one really drew me in. We have an Irish immigrant who commits suicide, leaving his young pregnant wife alone. She is taken in by a nun, into a convent who takes care of the Sick Poor. Annie gives birth to Sally, and they both grow up in the convent, with Annie working in the laundry room. The sisters take the two under their wimples and we follow Annie and Sally, as they figure out where to go in life.
As they grow up, Annie begins an affair. Sally decides to become a nun as well, until she actually HAS to deal with the sick and the poor. The stories flip back and forth between the past and the more modern day as we follow both of their lives.
I really couldn't stop reading this. This was a great story to ride along with.
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