Kitchen Canary by Joanne Parsons

Kitchen Canary is winning acclaim.
2018 First Place in Historical Fiction Novel - Royal Dragonfly Book Awards.
2018 Honorable Mention-Novel- Royal Dragonfly Book Awards
2018 Finalist for Fiction Category-Independent Publishers of New England.

"Exceptionally well written, thoroughly absorbing, and consistently entertaining...." Mid West Book Review.

Kitchen Canary is the first in a series of two novels that follow the journeys of two young Irish immigrants who come to America to work as domestics.

Boston 1868...At the insistence of her parents, sixteen-year-old Katie O'Neil reluctantly left her beloved Galway. She joined her cousin, Moira Murphy to work as a nanny and domestic. In mid-nineteenth century Boston, Irish domestics were often referred to as Kitchen Canaries and considered property of their employers.

The young women are violated by their employer, Charles Brennan. Their shame and guilt is so great, they keep the abuse a secret even from each. When Katie becomes pregnant, Charles Brennan's victims, Moira, his wife Rose, and the negro household help, bond together to hide the newborn.

In this post-Civil War era, Boston is bustling with change as wealthy Englishmen and Boston Brahmins expand world trade routes, build railroads and develop land. Immigrants from Ireland, Italy and Poland establish neighborhoods, existing in overcrowded, disease-ridden shacks and tenements. They, and negroes flocking North, suffer hate, humiliation and rejection from the establishment. The only value they have to the rich Bostonians is their willingness to work for little money performing menial or back-breaking, dangerous jobs on the docks, and building railroads.

This story is about the goodness of others, black, white, Irish and English whose strength prevails to overcome evil and guide Katie and Moira to true redemption. The sequel, Through the Open Door is now available.