“People have confused playing devil’s advocate with being intelligent.” – Cecily Strong
American Estrangement by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh ★
Fiction.
Saïd Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as “a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain.” His new collection of stories—some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and the Best American Short Stories—is set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised characters familiar to readers of Denis Johnson and George Saunders. These are people contending with internal struggles—a son’s fractured relationship with his father, the death of a mother, the loss of a job, drug addiction—even as they are battered by larger, often invisible, economic, political, and racial forces of American society.
Searing, intimate, often slyly funny, and always marked by a deep imaginative sympathy, American Estrangement is a testament to our addled times. It will cement Sayrafiezadeh’s reputation as one of the essential twenty-first-century American writers.
“Lyrical, funny, smart, and heartbreaking.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Sayrafiezadeh, entertaining and political without being heavy-handed, is a force to be reckoned with.” – Booklist
“An assured collection of stories about American men and their individual struggles… surrender to the raw power and offbeat charm of these expertly wrought tales.” – Star Tribune
“[Sayrafiezadeh] writes with a veteran’s swagger and discipline. Nothing here feels obligatory or tossed off… confirming the writer as a major, committed practitioner of a difficult form.” – New York Times
Available Formats:
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Cul-de-Sac by Joy Fielding
Fiction / Suspense.
Someone on this quiet, unassuming cul-de-sac will be shot dead in the middle of a sultry July night.
Will it be Maggie, the perfectionist wife, or Craig, the husband who can’t quite live up to her expectations? They’ve packed up their two children and fled their life in California, hoping for a fresh start in Florida, only to find the demons of the past hovering on their doorstep.
Maybe it will be Nick, a highly respected oncologist, or his wife, Dani, a successful dentist, both with well-kept secrets of their own.
Or Julia, an elderly widow, whose troubled grandson has recently moved in with her, introducing unsavory habits and even more unsavory acquaintances into her formerly quiet existence.
Then there’s Olivia and her husband, Sean. Having lost his job at a prestigious advertising agency, Sean is depressed, resentful of his working wife, and drinking heavily. He is also prone to increasingly violent fantasies.
And what of the newlyweds, Aiden and Heidi, whose marriage is already on the rocks, due to Aiden’s reluctance to stand up to his intrusive mother? Matters aren’t helped when Heidi befriends Julia’s grandson, setting the stage for a major blowup.
A diverse group of neighbors, to be sure. Yet all harbor secrets. All bear scars. And all have access to guns.
Not all will survive the night.
“In the residents of an ordinary-looking cul-de-sac, [Joy] Fielding has created some of her strongest, most compelling characters… An outstanding thriller and a perfect beach read.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“…gripping… As Fielding slowly reveals each character’s secrets, she nicely upsets readers’ perceptions and expectations as they try to figure out who will be the first to snap—and who will die. Suspense fans will be well rewarded.” – Publishers Weekly
Available Formats:
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Edge Case by YZ Chin
Fiction.
After another taxing day as the sole female employee at her New York City tech startup, Edwina comes home to find that her husband, Marlin, has packed up a suitcase and left. The only question now is why. Did he give up on their increasingly hopeless quest to secure their green cards and decide to return to Malaysia? Was it the death of his father that sent him into a tailspin? Or has his strange, sudden change in personality finally made Marlin and Edwina strangers to each other?
As Edwina searches the city for traces of her husband, she simultaneously sifts through memories of their relationship, hoping to discover the moment when something went wrong. All the while, a coworker is making increasingly uncomfortable advances toward her. And she can’t hide the truth about Marlin’s disappearance from her overbearing, eccentric mother for much longer. Soon Edwina will have to decide how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to stay in her marriage and in America.
Poignant and darkly funny, Edge Case is a searing meditation on intimacy, estrangement, and the fractured nature of identity. In this moving debut, YZ Chin explores the imperfect yet enduring relationships we hold to country and family.
“Chin writes about both the bright absurdities of modern tech-bro culture and the sharper stings of private heartache and displacement with bristling wit and vulnerability.” – Entertainment Weekly
“[Chin] is superb at describing the tumult of a woman being psychologically knocked about like a pachinko ball. Every chapter bears witness to Edwina’s pain, befuddlement and sheer exhaustion, while also revealing her snarky sense of humor, resourcefulness, tenaciousness and capacity for love. Edge Case shows what can happen to ordinary people when they’re caught up in systems beyond their control.” – BookPage
“Chin makes an impressive debut with this sharp take on faltering romance, the American dream, and self-realization… Edwina’s wry outlook and wrestling with thoughts about what it means to make it in America will resonate with readers. Those who enjoy the work of Charles Yu should take a look.” – Publishers Weekly
Available Formats:
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Everything I Have Is Yours: A Marriage by Eleanor Henderson
Nonfiction / Memoir.
Eleanor met Aaron when she was just a teenager and he was working at a local record store–older, cool, experienced, and with an electric personality. Escaping the clichés of fleeting young love, their summer romance bloomed into a relationship that survived college and culminated in a marriage and two children. From the outside looking in, their life had all the trappings of what most would consider a success story.
But, as in any marriage, things weren’t always as they seemed. On top of the typical stresses of parenting, money, and work, there were Aaron’s untended wounds of depression, addiction, and family trauma. Then, when burning lesions appeared on his body overnight, Eleanor was as baffled as his doctors. There seemed to be no obvious diagnosis, let alone a cure. And when the lesions gave way to Aaron’s increasingly disturbed concerns about parasites living inside him, the husband she loved began to unravel before her eyes. A new fissure ruptured in their marriage, and new questions piled onto old ones: Where does physical illness end and mental illness begin? Where does one person end and another begin? And how do we exist alongside someone else’s suffering?
Emotional, propulsive, and at times heartbreaking, Everything I Have Is Yours tells the story of a marriage tested by powerful forces out of both partners’ control. It’s not only a memoir of a wife’s tireless quest to heal her husband, but one that asks just what it means to accept someone as they are.
“[An] incredible memoir… about the depth of the marital bond… Everything I Have Is Yours is not a traditional love story, but it is a love story―one as heart-wrenching as it is heart-filling.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“Marriage memoirs are like confessions―the more honest the better. And Eleanor Henderson’s mesmerizing chronicle of her two-decade marriage is ruthless… rarely has codependency been chronicled with such precision, such poignancy.” – Vogue
“Everything I Have Is Yours… has aspects of medical mystery and horror story, but most readers will leave it with the impression of having taken in a love story as blisteringly beautiful as it is truthful.” – Shelf Awareness
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The Human Zoo by Sabina Murray
Fiction.
Filipino-American Christina “Ting” Klein has just travelled from New York to Manila, both to escape her imminent divorce, and to begin research for a biography of Timicheg, an indigenous Filipino brought to America at the start of the 20th century to be exhibited as part of a ‘human zoo.’ It has been a year since Ting’s last visit, and one year since Procopio “Copo” Gumboc swept the elections in an upset and took power as president. Arriving unannounced at her aging Aunt’s aristocratic home, Ting quickly falls into upper class Manila life–family gatherings at her cousin’s compound; spending time with her best friend Inchoy, a gay socialist professor of philosophy; and a flirtation with her ex-boyfriend Chet, a wealthy businessman with questionable ties to the regime. All the while, family duty dictates that Ting be responsible for Laird, a cousin’s fiancée, who has come from the States to rediscover his roots.
As days pass, Ting witnesses modern Filipino society languishing under Gumboc’s terrifying reign. To make her way, she must balance the aristocratic traditions of her extended family, seemingly at odds with both situation and circumstance, as well temper her stance towards a regime her loved ones are struggling to survive. Yet Ting cannot extricate herself from the increasingly repressive regime, and soon finds herself personally confronted by the horrifying realities of Gumboc’s power.
At once a propulsive look at contemporary Filipino politics and the history that impacted the country, The Human Zoo is a thrilling and provocative story from one of our most celebrated and important writers of literary fiction.
“Smart, crisp prose distinguishes Murray’s action-packed latest… This is captivating.” – Publishers Weekly
“Fascinating… Murray’s sense of place is vigorously vivid… taut with suspense… instabilities — of tone, of content, of sympathies, of perspective — can be cardinal assets in provocative fiction. In The Human Zoo, Murray wields those instabilities with a keen, riveting instinct.” – Seattle Times
“[A] sometimes blistering, sometimes sardonic, always enlightening and suspenseful contemporary tale…” – Literary Hub
Available Formats:
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In the Country of Others by Leila Slimani
Fiction / Historical Fiction.
Mathilde, a spirited young Frenchwoman, falls in love with Amine, a handsome Moroccan soldier in the French army during World War II. After the war, the couple settles in Morocco to start a farm. While Amine tries to cultivate the rocky and unforgiving terrain, Mathilde feels suffocated by the harsh climate. Alone and isolated with her two children, she struggles with assimilation and classism.
The ten years of the novel are also those of a rise in tensions and violence that will lead in 1956 to Morocco’s independence. All the characters in this novel live “in the country of others”: settlers vs. natives, soldiers vs. peasants, and exiles. Women, especially, live in the country of men, and must constantly fight for their emancipation.
“Slimani excels at telling this wide-ranging story, expertly folding themes of love, loss, alienation, gender, and belonging into a complex narrative set against the backdrop of World War II.” – Vogue
“A strikingly fresh and vivid novel, free of the stale affectation that permeates lesser historical fiction… [A] gripping novel whose personal struggles mirror those of Morocco’s fight for independence.” – Observer
“[Slimani has] a genius for empathy, an ability to translate experiences, and an understanding of what’s important to leave in and what’s crucial to leave out… Asking what it means to exist between cultures, and how we negotiate the ever-shifting complexities of privilege and identity, [In the Country of Others] acknowledges that such questions are as far from abstract as imaginable, and as intimate as the marriage bed.” – The Millions
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The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye
Fiction.
Meet Ben Dane: brilliant, devastating, devoted, honest to a fault (truly, a fault). His Broadway theatre baron father is dead—but by purpose or accident? The question rips him apart.
Unable to face alone his mother’s ghastly remarriage to his uncle, Ben turns to his dearest friend, Horatio Patel, whom he hasn’t seen since their relationship changed forever from platonic to something… other. Loyal to a fault (truly, a fault), Horatio is on the first flight to NYC when he finds himself next to a sly tailor who portends inevitable disaster. And who seems ominously like an architect of mayhem himself.
Meanwhile, Ben’s ex-fiancé Lia, sundered from her loved ones thanks to her addiction recovery and torn from her art, has been drawn into the fold of three florists from New Orleans—seemingly ageless sisters who teach her the language of flowers, and whose magical bouquets hold both curses and cures. For a price.
On one explosive night these kinetic forces will collide, and the only possible outcome is death. But in the masterful hands of Lyndsay Faye, the story we all know has abundant surprises in store. Impish, captivating, and achingly romantic, this is Hamlet as you’ve never seen it before.
“Shakespeare devotees will be impressed at the variations Faye introduces to the play’s plotline, and Faye’s considerable descriptive gifts are on ample display… Fans and newcomers alike will delight in Faye’s remarkable achievement.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Lush and magical, thoughtful and provocative, The King of Infinite Space is a remarkable achievement, staying true to Shakespeare’s tragic play in ways that will surprise and delight while reveling in neurodivergence, queer attraction and quantum physics… [T]his is a novel to stick with for its rewards of a surprising plot and Faye’s delightful storytelling.” – BookPage, STARRED REVIEW
“Wildly imaginative… Faye perfectly juxtaposes corrosive ambition, jealousy, and madness against the ineffable strength of love over distance, time, and space… [Faye’s] exciting new work should be especially appealing to readers who were intrigued by the reimaginings of Anne Tyler, Margaret Atwood, or Jeanette Winterson for the Hogarth Press Shakespeare project.” – Library Journal
Available Formats:
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Mrs. March by Virginia Feito
Fiction / Suspense / Horror.
In this astonishing debut, the venerable but gossipy New York literary scene is twisted into a claustrophobic fun house of paranoia, horror, and wickedly dark humor.
George March’s latest novel is a smash. No one is prouder than Mrs. March, his doting wife. But one morning, the shopkeeper of her favorite patisserie suggests that his protagonist is based on Mrs. March herself: “But… ―isn’t she…’ Mrs. March leaned in and in almost a whisper said, ‘a whore?” Clutching her ostrich-leather pocketbook, she flees, that one casual remark destroying her belief that she knew everything about her husband―as well as herself.
Suddenly, Mrs. March is hurled into a harrowing journey that builds to near psychosis, one that begins merely within the pages of a book but may uncover both a killer and the long-buried secrets of her past.
“[An] elegantly written, unflinchingly observed debut.” – Publishers Weekly
“In a horror-laced psychological drama, the wife of a bestselling New York novelist learns his latest protagonist is modeled on her… Abandoning her purchases, [Mrs. March] bolts from the store, never to return, and immediately confronts an advertisement featuring a woman smiling knowingly under the words ‘SHE HAD NO IDEA.’ Even the billboards know! This is just one of innumerable creepy details that speed Mrs. March’s descent into a spiraling vortex of psychosis… Feito is Spanish and lives in Madrid, but somehow she is the love child of Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson. On her way to the screen played by Elisabeth Moss, Mrs. March is absolutely right―everyone is talking about her.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Feito locks the reader up inside the fracturing psyche of a woman of privilege… through excruciatingly precise renderings of grotesque delusions… Feito masterfully orchestrates the bewildering horrors of Mrs. March’s breakdown… Feito’s bravura gothic thriller brilliantly exposes monstrous consequences of covert neglect and cruelty.” – Booklist
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Refugee High: Coming of Age in America by Elly Fishman
Nonfiction.
For a century, Chicago’s Roger C. Sullivan High School has been a landing place for migrants. In recent years, it boasts one of the highest proportions of immigrant and refugee students in the country. In 2017 around half its student population hailed from another country, with students from thirty-five different countries speaking more than thirty-eight different languages.
Some had arrived having only lived in refugee camps. Nearly all carried the trauma inflicted on them by the world at its most hateful and violent. Life is not easy for them in Chicago. They cope with poverty, racism, and xenophobia, with overburdened social service organizations and gang turf wars they don’t understand. But above all, they are still teens, flirting, dreaming, and working as they navigate their new life in America.
Refugee High is a riveting chronicle of the 2017-18 school year at Sullivan High, a time when anti-immigrant rhetoric was at its height in the White House. Even as we follow teachers and administrators grappling with the everyday challenges facing many urban schools, we witness the complicated circumstances and unique education needs of refugee and immigrant children: Alejandro may be deported just days before he is scheduled to graduate; Shahina narrowly escapes an arranged marriage; and Esengo is shot at the beginning of the school year.
Raising vital questions about what the priorities and values of a public school like Sullivan should be, Refugee High is a vital window into the present-day American immigration and education systems.
“…diligently researched and moving…” – Kirkus Reviews
“Educators and general readers alike will find this vividly intimate work insightful.” – Library Journal
“Fishman unearths the inner lives of her subjects with care and precision, and skillfully balances lighter moments (soccer games, TikTok dances) with harrowing turns of events. The result is a powerful portrait of resilience in the face of long odds.” – Publishers Weekly
Available Formats:
Hoopla eBook
She Wouldn’t Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha
Fiction.
A second chance is the last thing she wants.
When thirty-nine year old Maria Forssmann wakes up in her seventeen-year-old body, she doesn’t know how she got there. All she does know is she has to get back: to her home in Bienville, Mississippi, to her job as a successful psychiatrist and, most importantly, to her husband, daughters, and unborn son.
But she also knows that, in only a few weeks, a devastating tragedy will strike her husband, a tragedy that will lead to their meeting each other.
Can she change time and still keep what it’s given her?
Exploring the responsibilities love lays on us, the complicated burdens of motherhood, and the rippling impact of our choices, She Wouldn’t Change a Thing is a dazzling debut from a bright new voice.
“Adlakha’s debut is a truly compelling read, making the reader consider what they would do if offered a second chance, how they might deal with an impossible choice, and what is most important in life. The characters are relatable, the story is gripping, and the blend of domestic fiction with a hint of science fiction is just plain great.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“[A] wholly unique interpretation of time-travel mixed with living alternative lives… the book had me riveted… [It] all comes together in a beatific and meaningful way.” – Good Book Fairy
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The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate
Fiction.
Lucien moves to Los Angeles to be with his grandmother as she undergoes an experimental memory treatment for Alzheimer’s using the new drug, Memoroxin. An emerging photographer, he’s running from the sudden death of his mother, a well-known abstract expressionist painter. Even far from New York, her legacy haunts Lucien.
Sophie has just been cast as a lead in the upcoming performance of La Sylphide with the Los Angeles Ballet. She still waitresses during her off-hours at the Chateau Marmont, witnessing the recreational use of Mem pills among the Hollywood elite—people consuming memories not their own. One controlling, powerful regular’s obsession with Sophie spurs a series of events that threatens to unravel the life she has so carefully built.
When Lucien and Sophie meet at The Center, founded by the ambitious yet conflicted Dr. Angelica Sloane as a way to treat patients who’ve abused Mem, they have no memory of how they got there—or why they feel so inexplicably drawn to one another. Is it attraction, or something they cannot remember from “before”?
Set in a city that seems to have no memory of its own, The Shimmering State is a graceful meditation on the power of story and its creation. It masterfully explores memory and how it can elude us, trap us, or set us free.
“…ambitious… It’s a captivating story, one that leaves readers wondering if a life scrubbed of pain and real connection is a life at all.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A tale that’s told in the back rooms at Chateau Marmont and behind the curtains at the Los Angeles Ballet, it explores the dark side of California dreaming—and how, more often than not, memory isn’t a lane, but a labyrinth.” – Vogue
“[Explores] the powerful force of memory, manipulation, and storytelling, especially the tales we tell ourselves.” – Off the Shelf
Available Formats:
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The Show Girl by Nicola Harrison
Fiction / Historical Fiction / Romance.
It’s 1927 when Olive McCormick moves from Minneapolis to New York City determined to become a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Extremely talented as a singer and dancer, it takes every bit of perseverance to finally make it on stage. And once she does, all the glamour and excitement is everything she imagined and more–even worth all the sacrifices she has had to make along the way.
Then she meets Archie Carmichael. Handsome, wealthy–the only man she’s ever met who seems to accept her modern ways–her independent nature and passion for success. But once she accepts his proposal of marriage he starts to change his tune, and Olive must decide if she is willing to reveal a devastating secret and sacrifice the life she loves for the man she loves.
“Full of surprises and romance, Harrison’s novel keeps readers turning the pages… Fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls will drink this up.” – Booklist
“Lush and evocative… she’ll keep readers turning the pages.” – Publishers Weekly
Available Formats:
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Surviving the Winters: Housing Washington Army’s During the American Revolution by Steven Elliott
Nonfiction / History.
George Washington and his Continental Army braving the frigid winter at Valley Forge form an iconic image in the popular history of the American Revolution. Such winter camps, Steven Elliott tells us in Surviving the Winters, were also a critical factor in the waging and winning of the War of Independence. Exploring the inner workings of the Continental Army through the prism of its encampments, this book is the first to show how camp construction and administration played a crucial role in Patriot strategy during the war.
As Elliott reminds us, Washington’s troops spent only a few days a year in combat. The rest of the time, especially in the winter months, they were engaged in a different sort of battle—against the elements, unfriendly terrain, disease, and hunger. Victory in that more sustained struggle depended on a mastery of camp construction, logistics, and health and hygiene—the components that Elliott considers in his environmental, administrative, and operational investigation of the winter encampments at Middlebrook, Morristown, West Point, New Windsor, and Valley Forge. Beyond the encampments’ basic function of sheltering soldiers, his study reveals their importance as a key component of Washington’s Fabian strategy: stationed on secure, mountainous terrain close to New York, the camps allowed the Continental commander-in-chief to monitor the enemy but avoid direct engagement, thus neutralizing a numerically superior opponent while husbanding his own strength.
Documenting the growth of Washington and his subordinates as military administrators, Surviving the Winters offers a telling new perspective on the commander’s generalship during the Revolutionary War. At the same time, the book demonstrates that these winter encampments stand alongside more famous battlefields as sites where American independence was won.
Available Formats:
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This Will All Be Over Soon: A Memoir by Cecily Strong ★
Nonfiction / Memoir / Biography.
Cecily Strong had a special bond with her cousin Owen. And so she was devastated when, in early 2020, he passed away at age thirty from the brain cancer glioblastoma. Before Strong could attempt to process her grief, another tragedy struck: the coronavirus pandemic. Following a few harrowing weeks in the virus epicenter of New York City, Strong relocated to an isolated house in the woods upstate. Here, trying to make sense of Owen’s death and the upended world, she spent much of the ensuing months writing. The result is This Will All Be Over Soon—a raw, unflinching memoir about loss, love, laughter, and hope.
Befitting the time-warped year of 2020, the diary-like approach deftly weaves together the present and the past. Strong chronicles the challenges of beginning a relationship during the pandemic and the fear when her new boyfriend contracts COVID. She describes the pain of losing her friend and longtime Saturday Night Live staff member Hal Willner to the virus. She reflects on formative events from her life, including how her high school expulsion led to her pursuing a career in theater and, years later, landing at SNL.
Yet the heart of the book is Owen. Strong offers a poignant account of her cousin’s life, both before and after his diagnosis. Inspired by his unshakable positivity and the valuable lessons he taught her, she has written a book that—as indicated by its title—serves as a moving reminder: whatever challenges life might throw one’s way, they will be over soon. And so will life. So make sure to appreciate every day and don’t take a second of it for granted.
“Powerful.” – USA Today
“Strong’s affecting memoir starts when her beloved cousin Owen dies of brain cancer in 2020 — just before the pandemic hits. After she moves to an isolated house upstate and begins keeping a diary, Strong finds Owen’s lessons about life bring her newfound strength.” – Washington Post
“This Will All Be Over Soon is a touching meditation on life, loss, and love.” – Hello Giggles
“Almost more common now than the one-hour stand-up special is the comedian memoir. Or the collection of slight if witty essays or (more rarely) mildly satirical or oddball short stories. The nonfiction often traces the comedian’s path to comedy, when it was they first realized they could be funny for a living. Beyond professional obligation or a large advance, there’s little sense from the writer that they needed to write the book. That’s partly why Cecily Strong’s new memoir feels so notable… its diary-like passages reflect the immediacy of the emotions she conveys. – AV Club
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Vortex by Catherine Coulter
Fiction / Suspense.
Seven years ago, Mia Briscoe was at a frat party with her best friend Serena when a fire broke out. Everyone was accounted for except Serena. She was never heard from or seen again. Now Mia is an investigative journalist covering the political scene in New York City, but she hasn’t given up trying to find out what happened to her friend that night. When an old photo taken at the frat party gives her clues, Mia realizes she knows just where to look. She enlists FBI agent Sherlock’s help to uncover a sinister string of events going all the way back to that disastrous party. But some very powerful—and very dangerous—people will do anything to keep the past buried.
CIA Operative Olivia Hildebrandt is a team leader on a mission in Iran to exfiltrate a betrayed undercover operative. She’s nearly killed by an exploding grenade and saved by a team member. After leaving Walter Reed Hospital, not only has that team member disappeared but two men come to her house to kill her. Savich believes their attack on Olivia is a direct result of the compromised mission in Iran. What intelligence was at stake? Who betrayed them? Savich quickly finds he is now a target himself and unseen enemies will stop at nothing, including murder.
“…nail-biting… Coulter does her usual fine job of building suspense by shifting between the parallel narratives. This long-running thriller series shows no sign of losing steam.” – Publishers Weekly
“Coulter… knows who her characters are, and what motivates them, and she knows what kind of adversary to put up against them… [The FBI novels] are suspenseful and surprising, and they have earned their large following. Vortex will be received enthusiastically.” – Booklist
“Another solid FBI story with the always loveable characters of Sherlock and Savich… these novels never disappoint the reader. There’s a reason this series has gone 25 novels… because they’re always good!” – Red Carpet Crash
Available Formats:
Print Book | Large Print Book | Playaway | eBook | eAudiobook
Yours Cheerfully by AJ Pearce
Fiction / Historical Fiction.
London, November 1941. Following the departure of the formidable Henrietta Bird from Woman’s Friend magazine, things are looking up for Emmeline Lake as she takes on the challenge of becoming a young wartime advice columnist. Her relationship with boyfriend Charles (now stationed back in the UK) is blossoming, while Emmy’s best friend Bunty, still reeling from the very worst of the Blitz, is bravely looking to the future. Together, the friends are determined to Make a Go of It.
When the Ministry of Information calls on Britain’s women’s magazines to help recruit desperately needed female workers to the war effort, Emmy is thrilled to be asked to step up and help. But when she and Bunty meet a young woman who shows them the very real challenges that women war workers face, Emmy must tackle a life-changing dilemma between doing her duty and standing by her friends.
“Pearce packs in lighthearted banter and depictions of the good-spirited citizens of London working together to survive the war… With big stakes and formidable opponents, this exciting saga is a fruitful exploration of the solidarity among women in times of grief, love, and hardship.” – Publishers Weekly
“Pearce captures the spirit and hopefulness of those left at home during war, and readers will delight in this second chance to ride along with Emmy.” – Booklist
“Charmingly humorous, but unflinching about the war’s human tragedies… this story offers a heartening message of women’s power to create change.” – HistoricalNovels.info