A Good Girl
Gracey Reiter is facing a catalyst; a past confronted, the present slipping away and the unknown, intimidating future. She can’t do anything about the past, except accept it for what it was—her father’s alcoholism, her mother’s infidelity and soul-searching, and her siblings “realities.” Imminent death lurks. And yet, in the midst of it all, histories come full-circle, revealing both lies and truths. What once was, will be again, repeating itself…or does the buck stop here? An all-encompassing novel that penetrates the core beings of all who read it, A Good Girl pulls back the skin to reveal the raw actualities of life, love and relationships, told with candor and honesty.
The Atlantic Coast of Ireland, County Mayo. Photography by Johnnie Bernhard.
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The Setting for A Good Girl
The novel covers three centuries in two countries as the reader follows the immigration path of Gracey’s great-great grandmother, Aileen Walsh and her daughter, Patricia Walsh. Patricia finds temporary peace from the famine of Ireland in a German settlement on the Gulf Coast of Texas where she meets Emil Mueller, the first born son of German immigrants. Together, they forge a life on a small farm near the Francistas River in Jackson County, Texas, where they, their children and grandchildren survive wars, the Great Depression, hurricanes and personal tragedies. In the 21st Century, Gracey returns to Jackson County to bury her father, Henry Mueller and to prepare for her only daughter’s marriage in Ireland.
