Growing up between the west coast of Ireland and the coal regions of Pennsylvania, Sophie O’Connor’s childhood is nearly idyllic. At an early age, she is introduced to the greats of Irish literature—Yeats and Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Shaw, and Seamus Heaney, and Sophie thrives surrounded by the great myths and legends of these writers.
Just before Sophie’s sixteenth birthday, her life takes a tragic turn, seemingly imitating the stories and poems she has learned and loved. Rather than face her heartbreak, Sophie seals herself off from the world around her, allowing only the love of her father and the poetry of William Butler Yeats to break through her self-imposed exile from life. In every sense but the biological, Sophie dies at the age of sixteen even while her heart continues to beat.
As a young woman, Sophie takes a teaching position in her beloved Ireland; there, she looks for the inspiration she needs to restart her life. As many Yeat
