Silk Stocking

Three generations of Irish American women seek better lives in Boston, in this historical saga of hope, hardship, and love by the author of Lace Curtain.

Mary Boland suffered aboard a coffin ship to escape famine and make her way to America. Her daughter, Nellie, was born in South Boston—a beautiful girl, smart enough to graduate from college when few women, let alone women of her background, could. But her glowing future as a teacher is ruined when she becomes pregnant—and she is forced to cope on her own as the baby's father disappears after returning to Ireland to fight for his nation's liberation.


Her subsequent rushed marriage to an ambitious politician will throw Nellie's life far off course—and reverberate in her mother's and daughter's lives as well. Nothing will ever be the same in this gripping conclusion to the Daughters of Ireland saga—a tale of poverty and wealth, opportunity and danger, and family and forbidden love set against the tumultuous backdrop of the late nineteenth-century Gilded Age.

Praise for Shanty Gold, the first in the Daughters of Ireland trilogy

"Charters interweaves many important topics—immigration, civil rights, women's rights—into her exciting novel . . . An evocative portrait of South Boston . . . Gripping." —Kirkus Reviews

"The story of a young Irish girl's struggles told with an authentic, historically accurate voice." —Sallie Bissell, author of the Mary Crow series


"A wild ride of discovery, romance, and the search for a new way of life . . . with twists and turns along the way." —Susan Blexrud, author of the Fang series