A former Sudbury college business professor has penned a historical fiction novel based on his grandmother’s life. Michael C. Kelly said his latest book, Hanna’s Way, is set in the early decades of the 20th century and follows the journey of an Irish woman through France’s Belle Époque and WWI period. “I was doing genealogy work on family members, and I have a grandmother who I know where she was but very little about her,” Kelly said. Journey rooted in family mystery Kelly said about 10 years ago he took a trip to Youghal to do more investigation but did not get much information about what was happening in her life. “But I did know that she served as a governess in Versailles prior to World War one,” said Kelly. “She then moved to Philadelphia and lived in the United States for four years and then ended up in Canada.” Kelly said he believed if you do not know something about someone make it up and that is how the novel was hatched. “It’s a very respectfully written novel about my grandmother and have added a bunch of things that are obviously fictitious,” he said. Restless woman leaves Ireland in 1906 Kelly said the main character is a restless woman who leaves Ireland in 1906, adding the book is structured cryptically like the popular British television series Downton Abbey. “When the First World War comes along, she leaves France. But instead of going back home, she heads to the United States,” said Kelly. Kelly told CTV News that the main character boarded a ship called the ‘Transylvania’ for North America, and the trip was the last voyage for the ship and captained by the same man at the helm of the RMS Lusitania that was torpedoed by the Germans a few years later. “She stays in the U.S. for four years and moves to Canada,” said Kelly. “Each of the three sections of the novel has its own storyline.” Weaving the threads of migration together The author, who is also a musician, said that all the sections of the book weave nicely together. “The bottom line is not everybody who moves to Canada came directly here. There are several routes they took,” Kelly said, adding he was fortunate to take a novel-writing course for women in Sudbury and that helped him write this book.
