Sheila Killian was born in Roscommon, in the dead centre of Ireland, and now lives outside Limerick City, where she teaches at University. Her fiction, poetry and travel writing have won awards in Ireland and the UK, and her work has been broadcast on RTE Radio. She is a member of Writepace, and spends as much time as she can by the sea. Something Bigger is inspired by the life of her grandaunt, Marcella, who left for the States at the age of fourteen and by the time they met, had become a real-life Alabama belle, with creamy blue eyes and a slow, Southern drawl. Marcella taught Sheila to read using the tales of Brer Rabbit, and filled her full of stories of the South, and the unforgettable drama that unfolded there and now lies within the pages of this debut novel.
Books by Sheila Killian
Something Bigger
by Sheila Killian
When fourteen-year-old Marcella Coyle leaves Ireland to join her brother, Fr. Jimmy, in Alabama, she has no idea where the journey will take her. Far from home and the boy she almost loves, plunged into the tense cauldron of the Deep South as the twentieth century begins, she struggles to understand her outspoken brother and his way of seeing everyone as a friend. Her own plans are stymied by war and rising bigotry which makes Jimmy a target as the KKK returns to the streets. Meanwhile Marcella’s friendship with the enigmatic Bessie Stubbs, and her impulse to rescue some meaning from her exile has consequences that shock the city. And still on the edge of memory, she senses something bigger.
Buy Something Bigger Here (Coming Soon)