Oh how I cried when I read about the abuse of American immigrants at Ellis Island in this profoundly moving histfic novel by Heather Webb, published today.

In 1902, two women go to Ellis for the first time -- Francesca, an Italian immigrant, and Alma, who arrives at the immigration center for her first day of work. What they encounter sheds light on the American immigrant experience today, when many are turned away and families who arrive together are split apart, when certain groups are treated differently then others, in a tale that affirms why Ellis was oft called the Island of Tears. The women's unlikely friendship and the immigrants' courage prove that good can win out even in the most harrowing times. You won't be able to put this magnificent read down!

Highly recommended for histfic and history lovers, readers interested in the immigrant experience, and anyone who seeks inspiration during dark days.

Thanks to the author, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley for the ARC; opinions are mine.

#thenextshiphome #NetGalley #heatherwebbauthor #sourcebookslandmark #histficnovels #immigrantfiction #bookstacommunity

This book warmed my heart...broke it a bit too. Webb's world-building is absolutely fantastic. As I was reading, she had posted photos of Ellis Island and other areas she had written about on social media. What I pictured while reading and what she posted photos of were one and the same. To me, that is an amazing author. To be able to build a picture in your mind and have it that precise, I mean, wow. And then there's the story! These girls had my heart from page one. As a Sicilian descendant, it made me wonder what my family went through just a couple of generations ago. Or even that my parents were allowed to marry just over 30 years ago, as my mother is Sicilian/Italian and my father is Hungarian/Polish. What a scandal that would've been just a couple of decades earlier.

The story of Ellis Island and Alma and Francesca struck a chord with me and I think anyone who has had family members emigrate will feel the same. The American Dream is something many sought after (and still do), but it's not that simple. Hardships were experienced by many, prejudices too. Sometimes it feels like things haven't really changed...

This book was stunning and I highly recommend it. I received an advanced copy of this book and all opinions are my own.

The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb tells the story of two young women, the relationships with Ellis Island, and the difficulty of life in early New York. It is a gripping story of a young German woman, Alma Brauer, who lives at home with her mother and stepfather, until one day when her stepfather arranges a job for her at Ellis Island, through an acquaintance. She is terrified and even more so when she gets there and has to interact with these tragic people and the more tragic employees. Francesca Ricci is a young Italian immigrant who has traveled to New York with her sister, looking for a new life. In a horrifying turn of events, her sister becomes ill on the journey and dies in the infirmary on Ellis Island. Having been exposed to the two, Alma decides to help and is most successful as Francesca is allowed into the country. What follows is interesting and heart-breaking in equal measure.

Webb tells a fictional story that is probably all too true in reality. Life, as horrible as it can be, held different horrors back then. Men were in control of all and it often did not work out of the best, especially for women. Alma wanted to be independent but wasn't able to see a way forward; she was so mired in the status quo. Francesca had no choice but to be independent and in that she succeeded. It was a wonderful story of a different time, in a wholly different place. This is the purpose of books: to transport. Engaging story.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The Next Ship Home by Sourcebooks, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #netgalley #sourcebooks #thenextshiphome #heatherwebb

As I read this book, I was forever moved by the lives of these characters and all the sacrifice, hurt, and resilience they experience.

The prejudice, manipulation, abuse, and extortion of the workers of Ellis Island was shocking and I realized that while I knew a little of what immigrants went through as they came to the US, there was way more that I was unaware of.

My grandmother came here from Ireland at 18, but fortunately for her she had a sponsor in NYC. I don't know what she could have gone through.

THE NEXT SHIP HOME by Heather Webb is a heart-wrenching and emotional story that describes the experience of immigrants to the United States that came through Ellis Island in 1902. The story is based on true events that show how immigrants were treated, the abuse they suffered and the rampant corruption among the US officials in charge of the detention facilities on the island. Francesca Ricci arrived at Ellis Island from Sicily with dreams of finding a better life in America. Having escaped her abusive father, but mourning the loss of her beloved sister, Maria, during the difficult ocean crossing, Francesca still has hope for a fresh start in a new country of opportunity. On the same day as Francesca arrives at Ellis Island, Alma Brauer begins working as a matron in the immigration center. Coming from a family of German heritage, Alma has grown up disliking immigrants, but she is forced to take the job by her demanding step-father. At first Alma is reluctant to help the immigrants much, but with her command of other languages and after seeing the newcomers being treated so poorly, Alma steps in to help when she can. Francesca and Alma form an unlikely friendship that will end up changing both their lives. I was totally immersed in the story and inspired by the strength and courage displayed by Francesca and Alma. Heather Webb’s wonderful writing kept me engaged from beginning to end. I also learned a lot, which is something I always relish when I read historical fiction. I highly recommend this powerful and thought-provoking book. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.

Thank you so much for my opportunity to read this book in advanced in exchange for my honest review! I absolutely love historical fiction and Heather Webb does this genre so much justice. This story was so intriguing right from the beginning and these characters really brought the past to life. I love learning about this time and highly recommend!

We all know of Ellis Island, but do we really know what it was like and what went on?

Millions of immigrants passed through Ellis Island, but they all didn't make it into the land that promised them a new life.

We meet Francesca and her sister Maria who came to Ellis Island from Italy because they wanted to escape their abusive father.

We also meet Alma one of the matrons who worked at Ellis Island and who felt a need to help these two women. Luckily Alma spoke Italian.

Most of The characters were authentic and warm and you felt for the immigrants.

The book focused on Francesca, her sister Maria, Alma, the immigrants, and how Ellis Island operated.

We find out things we don’t want to know but things that went on and people at Ellis Island that were corrupt.

THE NEXT SHIP HOME is an excellent inside look at Ellis Island, and with these wonderful characters makes it a read historical fiction fans won't want to miss.

Thumbs up to Ms. Webb for this marvelous book.

You won’t be able to put the book down. 5/5

This book was given to me by Tall Poppy Writers and Sourcebooks via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was absolutely fantastic! Through the perspectives of two women one either side of the immigration line, I learned so much about Ellis Island in the early 1900s!

Francesca has been through a harrowing journey with her sister across the ocean to arrive at America’s doorstep. Excited and nervous, her expectations are quickly reduced to nothing as everything goes wrong. Then she meets Alma, and they form a bond that takes the reader through this fantastic story.

The narration alternates between Francesca and Alma’s perspectives, giving us first view insight into each woman’s life. For Francesca, a lot of the story is about the horrors of trying to get through Ellis Island, but when she does get off, she still has to secure a job and a place to live. Francesca’s success in getting through Ellis was helped along by Alma. I would never call this girl spoiled, but we see her grow up a lot as the story progresses. She connects with Francesca and becomes determined to ensure that Francesca is successful in America.

Beyond the two women’s friendship, this story is about the bigger issues that Ellis Island had in the early 1900s. There was bribery, poor treatment of immigrants, and so many other things. Alma becomes a catalyst for change as the story progresses. I really enjoyed this as it was something I didn’t know happened. The author included news articles between the chapters that brought another historical angle into the writing.

I was absolutely captivated by this story, and I would highly recommend it for historical fiction readers!

My Rating : I really enjoyed it !


✔️ I really enjoyed the first half of this book - it was unique and gave some great insights into Ellis Island and some of the main challenges faced by the immigrants arriving there in the early 1900s.
✔️ I enjoyed both Alma and Francesca’s characters - Alma as she’s struggles to find her voice, and Francesca who struggles with the difficult choices she needs to make it to America and ensure her own survival
✔️ some great insights into the conflicts of the various immigrant groups that arrived in NYC; the working conditions they faced and their struggles to just make it into America
🔘 the second half of the book was good and but at times a bit more predictable as we ventured into love, romance and some intrigue.

Of late, so many historical fiction novels seem to take the two time period/ mystery to solve approach / format , that I was really appreciative that this book didn’t !

My own grandfather immigrated from Wales in 1906, and it is likely he came thru Ellis Island just like the girls in this story. I have not read much about Ellis Island, sad that it is easy to imagine the immense difficulty they had with corruption and abuse from those dealing with a multitude of immigrants. It was fascinating to read that eventually women were chosen, rather than men to be immigration officers. The story is based upon actual situations at Ellis Island. But the focus is on a family immigrating from Italy and a matron who is German created from the author’s imagination. The atrocities and exploitation committed and the bribes and exploitation of immigrants is pulled from historical reports. Both Italian Francesca and the German Alma are strong women struggling with abusive families and a desire to trade their life for other opportunities. Though the story focuses on a sweet friendship that grew despite the tensions often found between Germans and Italians, still the story has some very dark and disturbing elements. I appreciate the opportunity from NetGalley and the publisher to read an advance copy of this book.

Author Heather Webb's main characters, Anna Brauer and Francesca Ricci, are entirely fictional. Alma, age twenty-one and unmarried, lives in a tenement in Kleindeutschland (Little Germany), one of many communities within New York City situated within just a few blocks that remained separate, the inhabitants understanding their respective roles within the strictures of society. Alma's family and friends steer clear of the Irish, Italian, Russian, and Jewish neighborhoods, and "the squalor the newly arrived immigrants bring to the city." Her stepfather, Robert, and mother, Johanna, run a bierhaus in the basement where they serve German customers. "Alma had never questioned her parents' views. In fact, they'd instilled their own unease" about people unlike them in her. To disarm her anxiety, she learned other languages in order to understand people different from her and her family. Learning of her activities, her stepfather has forbidden Alma and her older brother, Fritz, from continuing to study Italian, demanding that they remain steeped in German tradition, "a known aspect of their lives, comforting in its predictability." But Alma will not be dissuaded, sneaking away whenever possible to learn more.

Alma's parents are anxious to move to a better neighborhood and Robert, who constantly refers to Alma as a burden, announces that he has arranged with John Lambert, the chief inspector at Ellis Island, for Alma to begin work there as a matron. She is to contribute her wages to the household and continue working in the bierhaus in the evenings and on weekends. Alma is mortified at the thought of being sent off to work among "a horde of unruly, dirty immigrants," convinced it will ruin her reputation and dissuade any possible suitors. After all, Ellis Island, the immigration station, is called Tranen Insel -- Island of Tears.

Meanwhile, Francesca and her sister, Maria, abandoned by their mother years ago, have run away from their abusive alcoholic father in Italy, crossing the Atlantic in steerage where passengers are crammed together in the filthy bowels of the ship with little food or water. Francesca has already sacrificed a great deal in order to get herself and Maria aboard the ship, proving that she will do whatever it takes to survive and protect her beloved sister. But Maria has grown increasingly ill and they have used up their water rations. Desperate to help her sister and aided by her compassionate fellow passengers, Francesca bluffs her way up to first-class in search of water. There, she encounters the benevolent Marshall Lancaster and his haughty mother. Not only does Marshall give Francesca water, he also offers her his card, telling her, "I hope you will consider me your first friend in America." His address is Park Avenue. Francesca is resolved that once she reaches America, she will never have to steal or "beg for charity again."

From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island served as the immigration station for millions of immigrants escaping war, drought, famine, and religious persecution for the promise of a better life in the United States. All arriving immigrants were tagged with information gleaned from their ship’s registry. They were funneled into long lines in which they waited to undergo medical and legal inspections before being admitted into the country. Some were detained on the island for days or even weeks until their suitability to enter the United States was confirmed. Others were deemed ineligible and sent back to the country from which they had traveled, their hopes dashed. Webb convincingly takes readers to the island with Alma, describing the ferry trip, the sounds and smells, and the sea of confused, frightened immigrants with whom Alma must contend, along with Mrs. Keller, the head matron and her supervisor. From the outset, Mrs. Keller seems determined to give Alma the most challenging and taxing assignments. "The guards and inspectors do the sorting" of the immigrants as they arrive, while the matrons are specifically charged with helping the female immigrants and their children. Mrs. Keller makes clear that the questions asked by the inspectors are designed to "find reasons to deport the immigrants" in order to "keep our country safe from the worst kinds of people." She also warns Alma to stay out of the way of Commissioner Fitchie (a scandalous actual historical figure) and that "there are a few others you should avoid, but you'll learn that in time on your own." Alma soon puts her study of other languages, particularly Italian and Russian, to good use in an effort to explain to the immigrants what will be required of them and what their futures hold.

Alma soon encounters Francesca and Maria, and even though she has been warned not to become personally involved in the immigrants' lives and plights, she cannot help but take the sisters into her heart. She risks a job she is learning to love in order to assist Francesca. With Alma's help, Francesca reaches out to the man who promised to be her first friend and secures her future in New York City. Or at least it appears that way. But John Lambert, a fictional character loosely based on John Legerhilder, an inspector who was described as "dictatorial and cruel," threatens the independence and freedom that both Alma and Francesca are working hard to attain. Francesca finds herself choosing between acceding to the inspector's repugnant demands or being deported back to Italy and her abhorrent father. With an iron will and unwavering determination to find her way in America, free from her father's domination and physical abuse, Francesca does not regret her choice. Alma, deemed plain by her overbearing stepfather, is informed that he has promised Alma will marry Lambert without her knowledge or consent. Alma is appalled and angered at being treated like chattel, and feels further betrayed as her mother silently goes along with her stepfather's machinations. Alma is painfully aware she will disgrace her family and herself if she refuses to marry Lambert. But she neither knows nor loves him, and with each passing day she learns more about him and the disturbing way business is conducted on Ellis Island. She must find a way to break off the engagement.

Webb cleverly includes fictionalized newspaper accounts of ongoing investigations into employees and vendors, ordered by President Roosevelt. Eventually Commissioner Fitchie was replaced by Commissioner William Williams, as recounted in the book. He was dispatched to determine the source and nature of the corruption, and clean up the island's operations. His arrival shakes up the employees, who are interviewed individually and warned that they must report wrongdoing. Alma witnesses misconduct and hears about more, but in a story that could appear in the headlines in any city in America today, her supervisor refuses to take action, leaving Alma to risk retaliation if she goes over Mrs. Keller's head.

Webb's characters are fully developed and empathetic. In Webb's skilled telling of her story, Alma, who is naive, sheltered, and obedient at the outset, transforms into a strong young woman who rejects her parents' view of the world and the "others" who inhabit it with her. She develops a genuine friendship with Francesca and learns a great deal from her about self-worth and self-assurance. She discovers strength that she never knew she possessed and needs it when she decides that she must do the right thing -- in the workplace and her personal life.

Francesca settles into her role as a live-in cook for the Lancasters, even winning over Mrs. Lancaster with the delicious dishes she prepares. She also develops warm relationships with most of her coworkers and savors sleeping in the most comfortable bed she has even known, grateful that her days of stealing and scrapping in order to survive are behind her. She even grows close to Fritz, who flirts with danger and the possibility of losing his job with the railway by serving as a leader in the anarchist movement. But Francesca's new-found security is soon threatened and she learns that the price of her hard-won freedom may be giving up everything she has worked for, along with her new home.

Both Alma and Francesca defy convention, refusing to be subjugated and minimized, constrained by the roles they are expected to play within the social structures of their time. Webb aptly observes that their stories "highlight the vulnerabilities of women in the early twentieth century." But they also effectively illustrate how some aspects of women's lives haven't changed at all in the past hundred years. Women who are sexually harassed and manipulated in the workplace still face retribution and ostracism for standing up for their rights, as the #MeToo movement demonstrated. Moreover, Webb hopes readers appreciate that "many of the challenges Francesca faces are still issues for immigrants around the globe."

The Next Ship Home succeeds on two levels. It is an illuminating look at Ellis Island's purpose and operations, and the unique and important role it played in shaping the immigrant experience and history. It is estimated that nearly forty percent of all current United States citizens can trace at least one of their ancestors to Ellis Island. Part of the National Park Service since 1965, Ellis Island has been open to the public since 1976. Thus, it remains a destination for the millions of Americans who visit, hoping for a glimpse into their own family history.

And The Next Ship Home is an absorbing and relatable story of two young women from completely different backgrounds who come to understand and care for each other, establishing a friendship that strengthens, empowers, and forever changes both of them. Their story is as relevant today as it was more than a century ago.

The Next Ship Home is a must-read selection for fans of American historical fiction.

I loved so much about this book that it’s difficult to know where to start!

Heather Webb’s research of Ellis
Island, the Lower East Side, and the immigrant experience at the beginning of 20th century is impeccable. The historical elements are woven into the narrative of the plot beautifully.

There was some history that I learned from the book and now I have some research to do. All I’ve ever heard of anarchists is that they assassinated Empress Elisabeth of Austria and some how inspired heavy metal in the 1980s.

Finally, I fell in love with Francesca. She’s an amazingly strong, dynamic and witty woman.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for my gifted copy.

Absolutely a beautiful and heart wrenching story. I have read little about Ellis Island and never realized it was also known as the Island of Tears and that families were separated and immigrants treated with abuse and so much fear. This story was full of history and Heather Webb is a master storyteller!

The Next Ship Home was the first book that I've read about Ellis Island. Webb created a vibrant story that was thoughtful and emotional. I was instantly drawn into Francesca and Alma's intertwined stories. Both women captured my heart for very different reasons. Francesca was brave and strong willed while Alma was bright and compassionate. I admired the growth the women showed and couldn't stop reading about them. The premise of the book also pulled me in. Ellis Island to me was a place that was filled with dreams and that was about where it stopped for me. Reading The Next Ship home illuminated a darker portion of the immigrant experience.

Overall I very much enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it to any of my historical fiction loving friends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for my eARC in exchange for review.

The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb takes place in New York City and Ellis Island early 1900s.
This book tells the story of family, female friendship and strength and the immigration process for that time.
With compelling detail, she weaves in suspense, secrets, the risk of danger due to riots, risk of deportation, and deplorable conditions on Ellis Island. She explains in great detail the immigrant experience from when individuals and families looking for a better future come off the boats and have to face the stringent process to enter the U.S. While some of the Ellis Island employees followed the rules and had compassion for these immigrants, other were wretched and despicable in their behavior towards these poor people. I appreciate how the author weaves her story with fictional characters as well as real characters.
The story begins with a young woman, Alma, who begins her new job at Ellis Island as a matron. She's fluent in a few languages so she's saught after to help in many ways. She befriends a young immigrant Italian girl, Francesca, and her sister and when devastating things begin to happen, Alma wants nothing more but to help her new immigrant friends.
There are many characters and storylines that captured me from the beginning and I read this book fast to know what happened. It's a wonderful book. I really appreciate the authors note at the end to understand how the idea for this book came to be and her meticulous research to bring a historical fiction story to us about the Immigrants hoping for a better future and coming to our shores to achieve that. She tells how she spent a lot of time at Ellis Island, watching videos, buying books in the bookstore there and talking with the librarians taking notes and snapping pictures. All so we can read this incredible book. This story has resonated with me. I loved it.
I will be recommending this book to everyone. As a Heather Webb fan, she has created another masterpiece with this world of the Ellis Island immigrants and the people in New York City trying to make a living and teaching us what happened there during that early time in U.S. history in New York.
Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Heather Webb is a best selling author of many historical fiction novels, either written on her own ("Rodin's Lover", "Becoming Josephine") or with Hazel Gaynor ("Last Christmas in Paris", "Meet Me in Monaco"). This new book is also an historical fiction. It is set in 1902 NYC and revolves around Ellis Island, the Immigrant Inspection station. We are introduced to Francesca, who together with her sister Maria have arrived from Sicily and Alma, who has just begun working on the island. Weaving together fiction and actual historical figures and known issues from the time, the author has crafted a story that educates as well as entertains. She has captured the desperation of new immigrants, the despair of the poor and the lack of women's and workers rights during that time. This is a good recommendation for fans of the genre.

Considering the waves of xenophobia across the world these days, including in the US, the topic of this book is particularly timely, but it’s also an evergreen one. Whenever a person leaves their homeland to attempt a new life in a different country, they’re always going to be viewed with skepticism by the veteran residents and citizens. This book takes place soon after the turn of the 20th century, when the US was in the midst of a huge influx in migration (something like 15 million), and yet, I couldn’t help wondering if refugees and immigrants to the US these days might be victims to the same types of corruption and abuse that those who passed through Ellis Island were subjected to back then. Food for thought, for sure.

I must say that this one was a touch rough to begin with – as if Webb had a hard time figuring out how to get the two main characters to the spot where they connected and then from there to the beginning of the real story. Because of that, it was a touch disjointed and confusing to start with, but this cleared up quickly, about 10-15% into the book. Thankfully, by that time you’ll already be somewhat invested in these two women, and you’ll want to read further. I should also mention that this book, unlike Webb’s previous novels, doesn’t focus on any single real-life person or personality, despite it being based on true events. However, some of the more minor characters are based on real people. Because of this, I think I felt a bit less connected to Alma and Francesca than I have felt with some of her other main protagonists, who were real women. This made me think that this allowed Webb to increase the romance factor, since she had bit more leeway to include that than she did with real historical figures.

Admittedly, this isn’t an easy subject for a work of fiction, and I’m wondering if Webb found it difficult to write as well. This is mostly because, while I liked both Alma and Francesca, the more I read, the more I found Alma to be enigmatic, and I wasn’t sure that Webb was as consistent with how she acted. I was also a bit frustrated at how slowly Alma evolved and grew. On the other hand, Francesca was portrayed as more stable, and although her own development was also on the slow side, it didn’t seem to waiver along the way. Despite this, by the time you get to the end of this book, you’ll see how Webb brings both of them to new places in their lives, and how they’re each ready to begin new chapters for themselves.

One of the interesting ways that Webb uses to further the plot in this book is with excerpts of fictional news articles. These articles are all about investigations into the corrupt actions of the staff on Ellis Island (based on real New York Times pieces). The importance of these articles is that they are able to fill us in on things that took place outside of these character’s small world. Had Webb not devised this mechanic, we might have been subjected to extraneous discussions which would have surely detracted from the essence of the story, so kudos to Webb for this.

Finally, I want to say that I truly appreciated how Webb concluded this novel, in that she didn’t tie everything up overly neatly. We know that none of these characters had easy lives before this story begins, and we can assume that they’ll probably struggle in the future, but we are still left hopeful that they’ll all succeed. All told, I believe telling the stories of these immigrants from America’s past was a difficult task, and I can praise Webb for stepping up to the plate to tell the them. While this isn’t my favorite of her solo novels (that’s reserved for Rodin’s Lover, with The Phantom’s Apprentice a very close second), I still enjoyed it very much. I can honestly say that I would recommend this to historical fiction lovers who want to read something about (a less than positive, but still important piece of) American history from the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, I think this novel deserves a healthy four out of five stars!

This book shines a light on Ellis Island as it tells the stories of Francesca, an Italian immigrant, and Alma, a German-American residing in New York. Both of these young women are trying to make a better life for themselves, and they meet in 1902 at Ellis Island immigration. The two women bond and help each other through many difficult situations. I love a historical book where I learn something.

This is wonderful historical fiction that shows the part of Ellis Island we like to ignore. Francesca and her sister Maria fled their abusive father in Sicily only to find themselves trapped at Ellis Island because they have neither a male relative to meet them or an employment letter in hand. Luckily, their path intersects with Alma, the daughter of German owners of a bierstube who has been sent to work their by her stepfather. Alma has a facility for languages, including especially Italian and she takes on the case of the sisters. Francesca experiences abuse but is ultimateltly thanks to Alma released to take a job at the home of a man she met on the voyage. The perspective shifts between the two women over the course of a year and you get a good sense of both of their situations. No spoilers from me but I suspect others will, like me, have an inkling of a few things, The atmospherics, both on Ellis Island and in New York itself are terrific, the characters interesting and the plot skips along, My only quibble is the end, which felt somewhat abrupt. Don't miss the afterword. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Webb's a good storyteller and this is a great read.

The Next Ship Home is a historical novel set in 1902 America. Francesca is an immigrant who has traveled from Italy with her seriously ill sister. Alma is a young German woman who works at Ellis Island. When Francesca needs help, Alma reaches out to her and they form a bond.

This was such a unique novel - I have never read about Ellis Island before. It was a fascinating glimpse at this earlier time in American history. Recommended for historical fiction fans.