Some Tides Never Recede.

In famine-stricken Ireland, Lara Flannigan grows up surrounded by the warmth of a large, boisterous family. Though hardship is everywhere, she believes the love that binds them together can withstand anything.

Then tragedy shatters her world.

With her family facing starvation, Lara is sold into servitude and placed in the household of a cruel landlord. Stripped of her freedom and separated from everyone she loves, she must summon the courage to escape before the life she once knew disappears forever.

When Charity and Zane Roscoe, a childless American couple visiting Ireland to aid those suffering during the famine, discover Lara alone and gravely ill, they offer her an unexpected chance at survival. Their kindness carries her across the Atlantic and into a new life in Philadelphia, where elegant townhouses, elaborate gowns, and the rigid expectations of high society could not be further removed from the rugged Irish coast she still calls home.

Lara grows from a wounded child into a determined young woman, reconciling the girl she was with the woman she is expected to become. She pursues an education, establishes a charitable mission for struggling immigrants, forms an enduring friendship, and discovers the possibility of love. Yet the past has not released its hold on her. When a familiar enemy returns and threatens to take away her freedom once again, Lara must decide whether she will remain defined by what was done to her or finally claim her future on her own terms.

Lara's Story is an award-winning historical coming-of-age novel about immigration, class, family, survival, forgiveness, and the quiet courage required to make a life between two worlds.

Richly atmospheric and deeply human, Diane Merrill Wigginton's sweeping novel celebrates the strength of the human spirit and the healing power of love, belonging, and second chances.

Readers' Choice Awards 2019
First Place, Historical Fiction
Grand Prize Winner