Tessa's Landing

In Ireland in 1846, Tessa O'Melia is sixteen and the eldest of six children. Her mother's soup is little more than water and her childhood best friend has died of starvation. Tessa vows never to leave her home and family, but when her father is jailed, leaving the family even more desperate, Tessa's ma boards her on a famine ship to America for a marriage of convenience. Her journey is isolating and tumultuous, but her temper and youthful curiosity carry her through. In Tessa's Landing we see the sorrow and triumph of the Irish immigrant experience, and how one girl's self-determination leads to survival in a new world.