The Crooked Branch

Product Information

Approximately one month prior to release of the book, a negative review from Latina author Myriam Gurba was published online. In her determination to save her children, Ginny relies heavily on help from her eleven-year-old daughter Maire.

Book Review: The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins Book Review: The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins

Cummins spent her childhood in Gaithersburg, Maryland and attended Towson University, where she majored in English and communications. The 1861 book's five stories are Lois the Witch (124 pages), The Grey Woman (78 pages), The Doom of the Griffiths (52 pages), The Half-Brothers (20 pages), and The Crooked Branch (63 pages). It was fascinating to travel back in time, and so heartbreaking to read about the famine, the fever, and the pure anguish so many suffered during that time.From Jeanine Cummins, the national bestselling author of American Dirt and A Rip in Heaven, comes The Crooked Branch--the deeply moving story of two mothers from two very different times. Then, at her childhood home in Queens, Majella discovers the diary of her maternal ancestor Ginny—and is shocked to read a story of murder in her family history. Some also claimed that Cummins had previously identified as white but re-branded herself as Latina with the publication of the book, pointing to a line in a 2015 New York Times op-ed in which Cummins stated "I am white. Determined to uncover the truth of her heritage and her own identity, Majella sets out to explore Ginny's past - and discovers surprising truths about her family and ultimately, herself. In 2018 the book was sold to Flatiron after a three-day bidding war between nine publishers that resulted in a seven-figure deal.

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I can’t imagine what it must have been like to live during the famine, and Cummins does an excellent job portraying the fear, helplessness, and desperation of the Irish people. At the beginning of the book, when the blight first sweeps Ireland, Ginny and Ray make the decision that one of them must go to America for work. We can’t do life alone and while it’s scary - even a nightmare - to share what we really think and feel and experience - when we do there is relief and joy in the love of those around us.As Gaskell was well aware, the most powerful emotional responses that fiction is capable of producing are frequently plot-driven: the most memorable Victorian fictions are often works in which, once an atmosphere of intimacy is created, a strong element of suspense appears — and, as it dissipates, is replaced with a quite different emotion, one akin to love.

Plot and Empathy, Suspense and Love: Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The

I could remember having some of the same thoughts as Majella when I was a new mom, but I bet I would have enjoyed her story line even more if I’d read it 12 years ago! Determined to uncover the truth of her heritage and her own identity, Majella sets out to explore Ginny’s past – and discovers surprising truths about her family and ultimately, herself. This extraordinary novel reminds us how motherhood can make us feel as though we are coming undone while also being remade.Are parenting skills hereditary, or can women learn how to be patient, calm, and nurturing with their children, even if that sort of temperament doesn’t come naturally? All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. How would Majella’s experiences as a new mother have been better or worse if they had stayed in Manhattan, or if they had selected a more neutral setting than the house where Majella grew up?