Signed, A Paddy

The gruesome truth hung in the air, and none of us wanted to go near it. Not yet.

Ireland, 1848. Fourteen-year-old Rosaleen watches her mother die. Her country is reeling from the great potato famine, which will ultimately kill more than one million people. Driven by a promise and her will to survive, Rosaleen flees her small coastal town.

She eventually arrives in America at the birth of the industrial revolution and is filled with hope and a new sense of independence. Yet the more Rosaleen becomes a part of this new world, the more she longs for a community she lost and a young man she can''t forget.

Through a series of both heartwarming and tragic events, Rosaleen learns that she can''t outrun the problems that come along with being Irish. And maybe, she doesn''t want to.