2013: May the Road Rise Up to Meet You

About the Book

Primarily set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, this is a story of survival, love, faith, and family that beautifully braids together the lives of four unforgettable characters whose experiences speak to the diversity of our heritage.

As a boy, Ethan McOwen survives the worst of the Irish Famine and makes the treacherous crossing to America on his own. His endurance is tested in Brooklyn and the Five Points at the height of its urban destitution; and again on the battlefield when he becomes one of the first to join the famed Irish Brigade and eventually establishes himself as a celebrated war photographer. Marcella Arroyo, a society girl from Spain, arrives in New York amidst a scandal in her family. Strong willed by nature, she goes on to defy her father, and becomes a passionate abolitionist. Mary and Micah are slaves with considerable and unique talents, who form an instant connection and embark on a tumultuous path to freedom. The two eventually plot a clandestine escape on a cold Christmas Eve night, but things will not go as planned…

The road for each of these compelling, warmhearted characters is a perilous one, but war eventually brings them together, dramatically changing the course of their individual lives. Their journeys illuminate the quintessential American experience, drawing on war, famine, exile, romance, literature, and that most American of ideals, faith that one can rise from nothing to the fullest of life’s possibilities.

Interspersed with letters, journals, and dreams, and written in richly textured historical detail, including vivid and poignantly rendered scenes on the battlefield, May the Road Rise Up to Meet You is an all-consuming saga about the road to freedom and the triumph of love.

About the Author

Peter Troy is a former journalist and high school history teacher. He lives in New York State where he is at work on his next novel which he expects to complete soon. All four characters from the first novel make an appearance as they pass a torch to a new generation. This book will span about 50 years, from 1898 to 1948 and shift to Boston and Lowell, Mass., where Troy’s grandfather grew up and worked in the mills. The third book will take the story up to 2001.