The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb

The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb

Ellis Island, 1902: Two women band together to hold America to its promise: Give me your tired, your poor ... your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...

A young Italian woman arrives on the shores of America, her sights set on a better life. That same day, a young American woman reports to her first day of work at the immigration center. But Ellis Island isn't a refuge for Francesca or Alma, not when ships depart every day with those who are refused entry to the country and when corruption ripples through every corridor. While Francesca resorts to desperate measures to ensure she will make it off the island, Alma fights for her dreams of becoming a translator, even as women are denied the chance.

As the two women face the misdeeds of a system known to manipulate and abuse immigrants searching for new hope in America, they form an unlikely friendship--and share a terrible secret--altering their fates and the lives of the immigrants who come after them.

Inspired by true events and for fans of Kristina McMorris and Hazel Gaynor, The Next Ship Home holds up a mirror to our own times, deftly questioning America's history of prejudice and exclusion while also reminding us of our citizens' singular determination. This is a novel of the dark secrets of Ellis Island, when entry to the land of the free promised a better life but often delivered something drastically different, and when immigrant strength and female friendship found ways to triumph even on the darkest days.

Heather Webb is a Ph.D. candidate. Stanford University awarded him a bachelor's degree in 2004. She was an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at The Ohio State University from 2004 to 2012. Since 2012, she has worked as a University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, and since 2013, she has been a Fellow of Selwyn College. She is the author of The Medieval Heart and the co-editor of Vertical Readings in Dante's Comedy with George Corbett.