Mary Male

The Land Beyond the Rain Mary Male

Spanning more than 150 years of an Irish-American family whose members find opportunity and adversity on both sides of the Atlantic, The Land Beyond the Rain is the story of the strength of family relationships that overcome issues of abandonment, poverty, discrimination, betrayal, shame, sexual identity, mental illness, and immigration, with opportunities for forgiveness and redemption. The Land Beyond the Rain weaves together social, political, and psychological themes that transcend time and space, through the personal journeys of family members. A young Irish girl, Erin Tompkins, and her mother, Tracey, an American ex-pat, meet their distant American cousin, Mimi, in their home in Belfast, not knowing this cousin has carried them in her heart for most of her adult life and has made finding them the goal of her first-ever trip to Ireland. A shared great-great-grandfather, who emigrated from Donegal in the 1840s to the US, links their past and future in unexpected ways. From the unlikely moment when these cousins from across the Atlantic are reunited, three family secrets are unmasked, with life-changing results. The common thread tying them all together was their Irish ancestor, whose history shaped all of their lives.