Annie Barrows, celebrated co-author of the global bestseller The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, once again evokes the charm and eccentricity of a small town filled with extraordinary characters. In the summer of 1938, Layla Beck is forced out of the lap of luxury and sent by her Senator father to work on the Federal Writers Project, a New Deal jobs program. Assigned to cover the history of the little mill town of Macedonia, West Virginia, Layla envisions a summer of tedium. However, once she secures a room in the home of the unconventional Romeyn family, she is completely drawn into their complex world. At the Romeyn house, twelve-year-old Willa is desperate to acquire her favourite virtues of ferocity and devotion, but her search leads her into a thicket of mysteries, including the questionable business that occupies her charismatic father and the reason her adored aunt Jottie remains unmarried. Layla s arrival strikes a match to the family s veneer, bringing to light buried secrets that will tell a new tale about the Romeyns and their deep entanglement in Macedonia s history. As Willa peels back the layers of her family s past, and Layla

Author Biography

Annie Barrows is the author of the children's series Ivy and Bean, as well as The Magic Half and Magic in the Mix; she is also co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Annie lives in Northern California with her husband and her two daughters. www.anniebarrows.com