THE REMEMBERING
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5 Stars * * * * * Readers' Favorite Reviews
"...an extraordinary achievement in historical fiction that will transport readers through time while touching their hearts." K.C. Finn - See all Readers' Favorite Reviews
This gripping fact-based fictional account, composed of three personal journals written as if by Collins’ ancestors nearly two hundred years ago, contains their intimate, emotional stories, firsthand experiences, and traditions of old-world craftsmanship in a world being overtaken by technology.
Based on the legacies of two Boston Irish and Italian families, it is a perfect story for fans of historical Irish fiction by authors like Jean Grainger, Andrew Wareham, and Daisy O’Shea, fans of historical Italian fiction by Daniela Sacerdoti and Kate Quinn, and fans of historical biographical fiction and family sagas by writers like Mark Sullivan and Marie Benedict.
Forgotten by Time, Rediscovered by Fate
“A century after her birth, Jessie (Ambrosini) Collins is laid to rest beside her husband, Joseph Cornelius Collins, in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Milford, Massachusetts. Weeks later, while settling her estate, her children and grandchildren discover an old hope chest filled with the artifacts and memories of her life.
Among the curiosities and treasures is a tied bundle containing three handwritten journals, previously unknown to the family. In time, they would come to realize that what they held in their hands was the family legacy—pictures of life passed down by those who lived before—of how it was with them in their time.”
The Odyssey of Cornelius Collins
It is 1845 the first year of the Great Famine in Ireland when fourteen-year-old Cornelius Collins begins a harrowing seven-year struggle for survival. At twenty, he escapes to Liverpool, England, securing a one-way third-class passage aboard a “coffin ship” bound for America. Against all odds, he survives the forty-one-day Atlantic crossing on the packet ship Clara Wheeler, landing in Boston, Massachusetts.
There, he is processed and released into the streets alone to face the “land sharks” eager to take what little he possesses, including his life. Fate intervenes, and an Irish American welfare society helps him find work as a bootmaker in the town of Milford. Determined, Cornelius vows to save every penny and send it back to Ireland to support his family.
Of Leather & Stone
As the decades pass, a highly prized pink granite is discovered in Milford triggering a “granite rush” attracting skilled stonecutters from around the world, including Giuseppe Ambrosini, a master stonecutter from Lombardy, Italy, a region renowned for its stone craftsmen. He comes to America seeking his fortune in the pink granite quarries of Milford.
Generations of their two families live through the most radical shift in industrial technology in the history of civilization, the disastrous effects of the American Civil War, widespread labor upheavals, the total collapse of the American economy, and the Irish Rebellion.
These events profoundly affect them and their American-born children, who unite their two families in marriage at the height of the Roaring Twenties and in the aftermath of ‘the war to end all wars.’
The Remembering
There will be no great fortunes or inheritance, no monumental works of art or science left for future generations. Instead, there will be profound life lessons learned from a lifetime of cutting and shaping leather and stone in Milford’s workshops and quarries.
“Theirs is the common fate of common people: living their lives without fanfare, known only to those who worked with them and those who loved them, then forgotten by time—until one day, when they are remembered, and their names are spoken again by the living in THE REMEMBERING.”
Praise for this book
5 Stars * * * * *
This week I’ve been thoroughly engrossed by Charles Paul Collins’ historical novel The Remembering: Of Leather & Stone. A fictional account of the lives of real members of the author's family throughout the ages, this book manages to give a compelling insight into the history of the Irish-American experience that is as deep as it is wide.
The real experiences depicted in the book can be heart-wrenching even when considered in the historical abstract, but here the author grounds these experiences in the lives of real and vividly depicted people, each with a journey of perseverance and growth.
Charles Paul Collins' prose is simply beautiful, faithfully recreating the world of his ancestors with an attention to detail and insight that often feels like pure poetry, turning words on the page into something I could see, hear, and smell in my mind's eye.
As each era passes and the narrative torch is passed along to the next generation, the accounts are filled with expertly crafted clues as to what has changed through the years and what has stayed the same -- we see not just the family and their situation but the world around them grow and evolve with the years.
The Remembering: Of Leather & Stone is an essential read for fans of historical fiction, painstakingly researched and effortlessly stunning in the sweeping tale it tells of generations trying to achieve the peace and prosperity that they were promised by the new world. I heartily recommend this book to all readers, whether a fan of historical fiction or new to the genre.