The Tea Rose is a towering old-fashioned story, imbued with a modern
sensibility, of a family's destruction, of murder and revenge, of love
lost and won again, and of one determined woman's quest to survive and
triumph.
East London, 1888-a city apart. A place of shadow and light where
thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled
streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the
darkest truths.
Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, a bright and defiant young
woman dares to dream of a life beyond tumbledown wharves, gaslit alleys,
and the grim and crumbling dwellings of the poor.
Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day,
together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With
nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe
struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.
But Fiona's dreams are shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal
man take from her nearly everything-and everyone-she holds dear. Fearing
her own death at the dark man's hands, she is forced to flee London for
New York. There, her indomitable spirit-and the ghosts of her
past-propel her rise from a modest west side shopfront to the top of
Manhattan's tea trade.
Authentic and moving, Jennifer Donnelly's The Tea Rose is an
unforgettable novel.
