Sisters of Belfast

In April 1941, the lives of 10-year-old twins Aelish and Isabel McGuire were forever altered during the Belfast Blitz when German bombs destroyed the city and countless lives were lost, including those of the girls’ parents.

Taken into the care of the Sisters of Bethlehem, Aelish learns slowly and painfully to conform to the strictures imposed on her by the nuns and the Catholic faith. Isabel, on the other hand, chafes under the religious order’s constraints and against the God they worship.

Aelish grows increasingly devout and decides to become a nun, while Isabel makes reckless choices that lead her on a destructive path away from her sister. The twins have always felt a “rope” between them, a mysterious connection by which they are able to know each other’s feelings and thoughts, but increasingly now their bond is frayed—or even nonexistent.

When Isabel decides to leave Ireland with the man she loves and go to Newfoundland, Canada, she begs Aelish to come with her. But Aelish, torn by indecision, secrets, and regrets, refuses to leave.

Several years later, when Aelish is summoned to Newfoundland to help desperately ill Isabel, she goes, weighed down by burdens and fractures in their relationship, yet feeling the pull of the “rope” once again.

As Isabel and Aelish become reacquainted, they forge a new path forward. But when tragedy strikes, they return to Ireland, and the truth of what really happened to Isabel before she left Ireland—the injustice, degradation, and evil—is finally exposed.

Author Melanie Maure’s novel for adults, which includes profanity, offers complex characters confronted with hard moral choices, describes a deeply disturbing chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and portrays hope, joy, and redemption in unexpected people and places.

In an author note, Maure writes, “My immediate acknowledgment, respect, and profound appreciation go to the 56,000 mothers and the 57,000 babies of Ireland who suffered the atrocities of mother and baby homes explored in this book. And to each of the Forgotten Angels—the thousands of children who died in these institutions only to be buried in unmarked graves—I pray peace for you.” (Harper)