Mary Beth Keane's "The Walking People" is not just a novel; it's a tapestry woven with threads of family secrets, societal prejudice, and the enduring strength of the human spirit. Set against the backdrop of rural Ireland in the 1950s and later in the bustling streets of New York City, this book tells the story of Greta Cahill, a young woman who dares to dream beyond the confines of her small village.

Keane's prose is both lyrical and evocative, painting vivid pictures of the Irish countryside and the immigrant experience in America. The characters are richly drawn, each with their own complexities and motivations. Greta, in particular, is a captivating protagonist. We witness her evolution from a curious child nicknamed "Goose" to a determined woman who forges her own path in a new world.

The novel deftly explores themes of family loyalty, love, and the weight of the past. Greta's journey is intertwined with the secrets she carries, secrets that threaten to unravel the life she has built for herself. The narrative seamlessly shifts between timelines, revealing the events that shaped Greta and her family, and the consequences that ripple through generations.

While the pacing might feel slow at times, it allows for a deeper immersion into the characters' lives and the historical context. Keane's meticulous research shines through in her portrayal of both Irish and American societies during this period.

"The Walking People" is a poignant and thought-provoking read that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. It's a story about finding your place in the world, the enduring bonds of family, and the courage to confront the past.

Keane's writing is evocative and immersive. Greta is a particularly well-developed and relatable protagonist. The novel delves into family secrets, societal prejudice, and the immigrant experience. Keane's research brings the past to life.

A must-read for fans of historical fiction and family sagas, "The Walking People" is a testament to Mary Beth Keane's talent as a storyteller.

Certainly interesting, it took me a little while to get into this book, but I’m glad I stuck with it.

It’s the 1960’s, and Greta and Johanna Cahill leave their farm and sail away on a ship to New York. They leave with Michael, a ‘Tinker’ who wants to settle down once he’s there, and make a life for himself.

Greta makes a life for HERself once she’s in New York - out of the shadow of her more confident sister, but in doing so, she ends up keeping secrets that I wondered would have been better shared. But these are people constrained by the times they live in and the place they come from.

I really enjoyed following the lives of Greta and Michael as they struggled (and succeeded) to make lives for themselves. Part of me wondered why anyone would want to leave the beauty of rural Ireland for the hustle of New York, but in reality there was nothing there for a lot of young people. If they wanted to earn money and have a job, they left for America and the UK.

It’s just a lovely story, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story of a family that loses touch and finds one another years later - with a bittersweet ending.

Recommended.

This is my first read by the author so I can't compare it to her previous novel but after enjoying this I will definitely be reading Ask again yes very soon.

If i had to use one word to sum up i would say atmospheric . The story reads in a dual timeline set in the 60s and more recent years and both the backdrop of poverty stricken Ireland and the hustle and bustle of New York will make you feel like you are there . I love any historical fiction with a New York setting which is what attracted me to this in the first instance but this has so much more to offer.

It's a slow burn character driven novel focusing on the migration of the Irish over to East coast America. . There are parts of the book which are maybe too descriptive for some when the author talks about the travelling community but for me I enjoyed learning and it was so evident that research had been done in portraying the issues such families were facing at the time . it's essentially a book about family, identity and immigration and you can't help but get immersed in the lives of these people . My only negative is that the ending left me wanting more , does this mean there could be a sequel ???......

I really loved this authors debut so I was excited to read this one but I really struggled to get into it, it felt so slow and I wasn't invested enough to continue

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Michael Joseph for approving me for an ARC of this book. I read Mary Beth Keane’s debut and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to this one.

This isn’t the type of read that is all guns blazing and action packed from the start. It’s a slow read that sets the scene and forces you to form bonds with the characters. Told from the POV of Greta we learn how one secret can have huge consequences for the whole family.

The story flicks back and forth from Greta’s childhood in the 60’s to present day where she is a mother herself and her children are also adults. Whilst living in Ireland as a child Greta and her sister Joanna were thick as thieves. They looked out for each other and helped keep their family together after the unexpected death of their father. When Joanna then decides to leave the family home to travel to New York Greta reluctantly decides to go with her. Travelling with them is Michael, a member of the Travelling People, who’s looking to breakaway from his family and set up a permanent home.

As we learn more about their journey to New York and how they settle in the unthinkable happens and Greta is forced to make a hard decision. What Greta didn’t realise at the time was how much her life would change from this one choice and it is clear that she is still haunted by her choices in the present day.

This had a lot of emotion and certainly dug into the roots of the family. Whilst the ending did leave us somewhat at a loose end on reflection I did like it, which is strange because I normally like everything finished neatly. I’d be interested to see what happened next for Greta and her family.

Unfortunately I chose to DNF The Walking People for now. I have tried to get in to it a couple of times but I can't seem to get beyond 10-20%

There isn't anything wrong with the writing I just don't feel the story/pacing is for me.

After reading and loving the author's other work, Ask Again, Yes I couldn't wait to dive into this one. Following a young couple from rural Ireland to elderly in America, it was once again a quiet yet deeply involved story. I finished this book some months ago and yet can still picture the run-down poverty-stricken Irish home and the bustling streets of New York where they later moved. For a character-driven read, there was never a second I was even remotely bored because I simply loved spending time with the characters, that I came to know so well.

My first book, that I have read by this author, absolutely brilliant! Highly recommended, and I will definitely read others written by this author!

I adore Mary Beth Keane, having devoured her not-insubstantial Ask Again, Yes. And this novel stands easily alongside that one. The story starts in 1960s Ireland and follows sisters Greta and Joanne from the grinding poverty of early childhood through to adulthood and a mostly comfortable middle age in America. Accompanying them on their journey and following the same trajectory is Michael, an erstwhile traveller (hence the novel’s title) who yearns for a permanent home. Keane writes patiently, beautifully, in detail. She creates a world so real, so immersive, that I challenge anyone not to believe it. Thus we want to scream at the flawed characters (capricious, selfish Joanna! Stupid Greta, spoiling everything with her needless kleptomania!) while aching for them viscerally when they make things go wrong. In the novel, the women are the structure, the bones of the narrative arc. The growth of Greta, in particular, from hopeless and gangly, a sad goose in her elder sister’s shadow, to stubborn, driven, even (after a measure) successful. Or Joanna, who starts out so spirited and passionate but loses her way, then seems finds it again; who appears headstrong and selfish but is the one, in the end, to make the bigger sacrifice. But important as the women are they are not, in my opinion, the novel’s heart. That role belongs to Michael, whose steady tread forms its beat, and who carries the emotional heft of the book with his quiet goodness. What he succumbs to at the finish is tragic, and yet the reader knows he would not view it as such. It is fitting that he both begins the book and ends it.

Having enjoyed Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, I was really looking forward to picking up The Walking People. Whilst I feel that Ask Again, Yes is the strongest of the two books The Walking People is a thought provoking family drama - an enjoyable read.

Mary Beth Keane’s novel The Walking People is a mesmerising family story spanning more than fifty years. It crosses the Atlantic from west coast Ireland to New York on the Eastern Seaboard, where what starts out as a reluctant immigrant’s journey ultimately becomes a real voyage of self-discovery for one young woman.

The book opens with a prologue in which we experience Michael Ward’s last day at work as a sandhog, the term used for men who dig tunnels (in this case, for a water project), sometimes going down as deep underground as the skyscrapers that soar high above New York City. It takes the reader somewhere they would never normally go or even begin to imagine and is an incredible opening section.

We’re then taken back in time across the Atlantic Ocean to the far west coast of Ireland in 1956, where eight-year-old Greta Cahill lives in the remote hamlet of Ballyroan with her family, mother Lily and father Tom, elder sister Johanna and brothers, Jack, Little Tom and Padraic. We meet them one morning when the family’s woken by a tragic accident, which brings a traveller family crashing into their lives.

I found the sudden switch of location and time period a little disorienting at first but Mary Beth Keane’s wonderfully descriptive writing quickly immersed me in the landscape and the lives of her characters who inhabit it. I enjoyed the change of scene and pace and spending time with the family in Ireland provides us with a chance to see how they grow up and get to know each other, and what drives the three youngsters to emigrate to America.

It also feeds into so much of what comes later, helping to establish where the characters started out and what it was like for them there, everything they leave behind and the drastic changes they experience before, during and after that daunting transatlantic journey. The Walking People of the title might well be the traveller family we meet here but it’s also surely referencing the emigrant experience: the people who decide to move on, leaving their homes to start over in a new country, in search of work and better opportunities.

With the exception of Michael and possibly Big Tom, it’s the women who stand out for me in The Walking People. I often found it hard to keep tabs on the Cahill brothers and differentiate between them. But then we spend more time with the women, whether in the cottage by the sea, on rare trips to Galway or in the hotel where the two girls work. Their mother, Lily, is a strong presence from the outset, as is Johanna with her teenage grumbling and swearing, but that’s no doubt why I gravitated more towards quieter Greta, who observes the family swirling and stomping around her.

At times, I railed at the way she’s treated and she had my full sympathy when we find out what’s been making her situation all the more difficult. This may well be a family story but Greta is very much at the heart of it and it is incredibly moving when we finally see her come into her own.

The Walking People is an absorbing family story of secrets and separation, love and acceptance, home and the migrant experience told with great tenderness, wit and compassion. Mary Beth Keane’s characters create a new home far from the only one they’ve ever known and show us that leaving to find our place in this world also sometimes leads to us discovering our true selves along the way.

This novel reads like an unpolished Anne Tyler novel, and in much the same vein is a slow starter with the family life and struggles taking the lead.

There are a few light moments (the bull, really?!) and some points you find hard to believe, but overall it has lovely described characters with an abundance of warmth and depth.

I will now be starting her other book!

I love Keane's writing and this book wasn't different. Family secrets written in an engaging, interesting way. I enjoyed my time reading it.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for tihs copy.

Unfortunately I could not get into this book, and ultimately did not finish it. Other readers may enjoy it more

In The Walking People, Greta and her sister Johanna grow up in a loving but poor family in rural West Ireland. Driven by circumstances to emigrate to New York, Greta finds new resourcefulness and happiness, but family life is full of secrets and she can never fully escape the complex pull of 'home'.

I absolutely loved Ask Again, Yes and was so excited to read this one. I didn't realise that it is actually a reissue of an older novel. There are many similiarities with the later novel, and as much to enjoy. Mary Beth Keane's writing is really a gift for a reader. The words just flow off the page. The story is always perfectly paced. She reminds me so much of Maeve Binchy as a writer. At times perhaps Binchy has the edge in bringing characters to life, and the men in particular were a little sketchy in this novel, but this is a minor detail. I galloped through this novel and I loved it. The locations were perfectly captured and the dynamic between Johanna and Greta was very believable. I also thought the traveller lifestyle was sensitively depicted. Mary Beth Keane is an outstanding writer, and I can't wait to read 'Fever'.

Having enjoyed Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, I decided to read this, her historical fiction debut first published back in 2009, and which covers similar themes, although there is a marked development in the author's writing in the later novel. This is set in the 1950s and 1960s, providing a detailed and well researched picture of the rural isolation, and impoverishment in a small village in West of Ireland's Galway, juxtaposed with the contrasting bustling, colourful cultural melting pot of New York City. The young Greta 'Goose' Cahill could never have imagined getting on a ship sailing for New York with her older sister, Johanna and 'tinker' Michael Ward but that is exactly what she does with dreams of greater security and a better life ahead of her.

The youngest, she is teased and regarded as different by her family, we learn of the hardships and tragedies of Irish life, Johanna's attraction to the travellers, the walking people, who have seen far more of the world and with greater life experiences. Greta and Johanna are like chalk and cheese, as can be observed by the different path that Johanna chooses to follow in the United States. Surprisingly Greta adjusts to the American challenges facing her remarkably well, carving out a strong sense of identity, becoming an independent woman. She and Michael settle down as a family, and with the belief that she needs to protect the children, buries the secrets that have the potential to threaten them. Whilst the yearning for Ireland and home never fades, the ties weaken considerably through time.

Keane captures the great Irish migration wave to the United States, becoming the 'walking people', helping in the construction of the American water tunnels by the sandhogs, along with the details of Irish life that motivated so many to embark on new lives across the Atlantic. In this character driven read, it is the children who reconnect old lives with the new, with an Ireland that has changed beyond recognition, bringing the possibilities of resolution into play. This is an engaging and thought provoking historical family drama, of struggle, challenges, emotional heartbreaks, friendship, love, and with insights into the Irish immigrant experiences. Many thanks to the publisher.

When I got the opportunity to read The Walking People, I was really excited as loved Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes. As with that novel, there are layers of family history in The Walking People, as we follow the central characters from their roots in Ireland to start a new life in America. The story weaves from past to present, and kept me interested all the way. The sense of place is extremely strong, with a vivid picture of Ireland as well as the draw of the big cities of America - the book builds an emotional connection to both places, and to me they were the heart of the book, even more so than the characters that we see them through. I really recommend this book to anyone who loves family sagas.

I got a real feel for what life must have been like for those people who emigrated to a country like America and were thrown into a whole new way of living. So different from the country life our characters experienced in rural Ireland. For Greta, it was a life she would most likely never have chosen independently but circumstance took her to the States.
Her resilience and independence came through in the story and she took events as they were thrown at her, finally making a good life of it. There was a feeling running through the story that she was sad never to have been able to go home again and see her family but she was also content with the family she made in New York.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though, for me, it ended with a sad image of how life was set to change and get harder for Greta and Michael. Life is not always kind.
I would highly recommend this book.

I really loved Ask again yes by this author a few years ago and it was in my top reads for that year, this is similar in the way that it has such a strong focus on family and deep buried secrets and dramas, but for me I did much prefer Ask again yes. I did enjoy this one but I just found that it didn’t grip me the same, it’s very descriptive and very much a slow burning drama, which I know a lot of people really do love.

I liked the family aspects and I liked Greta one of the main characters here, it had some quite emotional scenes concerning her and I did like the way past and present was explored with all the characters. This is a big focus on Ireland history and travelling communities, and how they fare in other settings with very different ways of life. I found all of this quite full on and overly detailed, which wasn’t for me but I know some will really find that interesting. For me I just wanted more of the drama within the family and not so much the history and culture side of it personally.

For me this is a 3 ⭐️, I did find it hard going and it wasn’t as gripping for me as Ask again yes but I do appreciate the research that went into it and also the writing in general I do like but it was the general content of the story that wasn’t for me and just the pace.