The Story Behind Birthright
Inspiration for my book began with a man, an Irishman, one of ten children who grew up in a rural world in the small town of Tralee, County Kerry. From the beginning, as in many Irish families, music was in his heart. It carried him from The Bobcats, a small local band of tin whistle players, to the Show Bands of the 60s, where his talent on the saxophone led him to the shores of America. Years later, attracted to Irish literature and my own roots, I met and married him in Orange County, California.
Unlike so many immigrants who came to America searching for a more lucrative life, my husband’s dream was to retire early and go home to Ireland. The best-laid plans don’t always allow us to follow our dreams. I am an American. I love our possibilities. I love the anonymity of Southern California. I love the choices we have for food, clothing, music, theater, education, climate, housing and much more. I love the sunshine and our occasional rain. I love the potential we take for granted and, most of all, the diversity of our population. Until recently, there wasn’t a great deal of diversity in Ireland.
My marriage to my saxophone player has lasted, but it hasn’t been an easy coupling. I taught school in Orange County for thirty-five years, which meant I could accompany my husband to Ireland and listen to his incredibly sexy music during the summer months. But his schedule meant several more months in Ireland at the beginning and end of the summer. When the grandchildren came, and I saw the need for stability, our preferences were as different as two people’s could be. I was particularly pulled because I was not only a teacher, a mother and a grandmother; I was a writer. Those months, before babies, were lovely, heart-stopping, once-in-a-lifetime months. But they couldn’t last forever. Children need school and friendships. They need early hours and long periods of sleep. They need familiarity and regular mealtimes. They need help with homework, swimming lessons and sleepovers. They need their parents, if not two, at least one.
The end of my story isn’t an unhappy one. My life has been colorful with good friends, the beauty of Ireland, and visits to the stepping stones of Europe. There will be a time when I no longer visit Ireland. I have a while to go before that inevitability. Until then, I continue to look forward to cool, rainy summers and the sound of my husband’s Mark VI saxophone.
Two women on a course to confront the past, one to expose its secrets, the other to bury them.
Claire Williams travels halfway across the globe from Southern California to Ireland to find the mother who gave her up and the questions that need answering. Norah O’Connor is equally determined to avoid revisiting the most shameful time of her life and the devastating decisions she was forced to make.
Claire’s presence fifty years later is the engine for the confrontations to come when neighbors Norah has known forever recognize Claire’s resemblance to a younger sister. Norah must face the man who fathered both her daughters, and decide to either hold the secrets that continue to embitter her or release them for the shame that will surely mark her.
“Jeanette Baker’s award winning novels have earned her a place in the paranormal genre beside giants such as Barbara Erskine and Kristin Hannah. Now she brings her unique writing style and compelling characters to the stage of contemporary Ireland, sharing a world as alluring as its secrets are opaque.”
—Lauren Royal, New York Times and USA Bestselling Author.
“Gorgeously descriptive and unforgettably moving, Baker’s novel is a wondrous journey of the heart.”
—Candi Sary, author of Magdalena
“Birthright will find a welcome place in any library strong in stories of mother/daughter relationships, Irish culture, and the special conundrums faced by adult children who seek answers to the decisions their birth parents made.”
—Diane Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
Book Information
Release Date: June 21, 2022
Publisher: Top Reads Publishing LLC
Soft Cover: ISBN: 978-1970107296; 254 pages; $16.99; eBook $4.99
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HJjpzA
Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3tTpSlU
Click here to watch the trailer
Jeanette Baker is the award-winning author of twenty paranormal, historical and contemporary novels, most of them set in the lush countryside of Southwest Ireland where she lives with her husband and writes during the “Seasons of Silence,” the autumn and winter months. Her ancestors, the O’Flahertys, hail from the counties of Kerry and Galway. She takes great pride in the prayer posted by the English over the ancient city gates, “From the wrath of the O’Flahertys, may the good Lord deliver us.”
Jeanette spent many years teaching 6th grade in a small school nestled under a canopy of Eucalyptus trees where the children consistently surprised her with their wisdom, their hopefulness and their enthusiasm for great stories. Currently, she enjoys the company of her own grown children and her precious grandchildren.
Jeanette graduated from the University of California at Irvine and holds a Master’s Degree in Education.
She is the Rita award-winning author of NELL.
Her latest book is the women’s fiction, Birthright.
You can visit her website at www.JeanetteBaker.com or connect with her on Facebook.
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