The Whitsun Daughters

By: Carrie Mesrobian

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh, Alana Kerr Collins

"How quickly everything in the world disintegrates. Everything but the loneliness of young women."

So begins The Whitsun Daughters, a story of three girls in a small Midwestern town, narrated by the ghost of a young Irish immigrant who, over a century earlier, lived and loved on the same small patch of farmland the girls and their mothers now call home.

Award-winning author Carrie Mesrobian weaves the story of the girls’ day-to-day struggles with the fractured and harrowing memories of their unseen observer. The threads of the tales are familiar: An arranged marriage. An impulsive proposal bitterly refused. Secret affairs. And pregnancies, both welcome and not. Each young woman fights her own lonely battle in the generations-long war of those who would no longer settle for haunting the margins of a world that wants to ignore them.

Critic reviews

"Carrie Mesrobian explores female sexuality honestly and emotionally, not only from multiple characters' vantage points, but from different periods in history. A brave, beautiful book."—Stephanie Hemphill, Printz Honor author of Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath

"Lyrically written.... Reminds us that women’s lives are not so different from one century to the next."—St. Paul Pioneer Press

"A gorgeously layered look at love, loss, and the complex lives of girls. Not to be missed."—Teen Librarian Toolbox

"Mesrobian writes with a sense of comfort and immediacy, drawing the reader into the girls’ stories.... Recommended for fans of Nova Ren Suma."—Booklist

"A lush and beautifully written treat for readers of historical and contemporary fiction alike."—Kirkus