Book Review: The Next Ship Home – A Harrowing Look at the Immigrant Experience
- Feb 12, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: 22 hours ago
The Next Ship Home offers a sobering and deeply immersive look at the immigrant journey often romanticized in history. Rich in detail and emotional weight, this novel reveals the harsh realities faced by those seeking a better life—and the strength required to endure them.
At-a-Glance
Tone: Engrossing, somber, and harrowing
Setting: Late 19th century, transatlantic voyage and immigrant arrival
Genre: Historical fiction
Themes: Immigration, survival, inequality, resilience, the cost of hope
Best for readers of: Well-researched historical fiction, immigrant stories, and emotionally challenging reads
Book Review of The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb
Engrossing and harrowing, The Next Ship Home takes the reader on a journey to a time and place many have romanticized.
Rich in historical detail and skillfully written, the author offers a look behind the scenes of the immigrant experience, focusing on the lower classes seeking a better life. This is not an easy book or a light afternoon read, but for those who appreciate history and the lessons it offers, The Next Ship Home is an education.
Recommended for readers of engaging and well-researched historical fiction.
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Book Information
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release: February 8, 2022
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Format Read: E-Book
Source: Provided by the author or publisher via NetGalley
Content Rating: PG-13 (1)
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About the Book
The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb
Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: "Give me your tired, your poor ... your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."
A young Italian woman arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life. That same day, a young American woman reports to her first day of work at the immigration center. But Ellis Island isn't a refuge for Francesca or Alma, not when ships depart every day with those who are refused entry to the country and when corruption ripples through every corridor. While Francesca resorts to desperate measures to ensure she will make it off the island, Alma fights for her dreams of becoming a translator, even as women are denied the chance.
As the two women face the misdeeds of a system known to manipulate and abuse immigrants searching for new hope in America, they form an unlikely friendship—and share a terrible secret—altering their fates and the lives of the immigrants who come after them.
This is a novel of the dark secrets of Ellis Island, when entry to "the land of the free" promised a better life but often delivered something drastically different, and when immigrant strength and female friendship found ways to triumph even on the darkest days.
Inspired by true events.
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