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Published Jun 2020
480 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Hidden desires, long-held secrets, and the sacrifices people make for family are at the heart of this powerful first novel by the popular Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist.
1957, Clayton Valley, Ohio. Ellie has the best grades in her class. Her dream is to go to nursing school and marry Brick McGinty. A basketball star, Brick has the chance to escape his abusive father and become the first person in his blue-collar family to attend college. But when Ellie learns that she is pregnant, everything changes. Just as Brick and Ellie revise their plans and build a family, a knock on the front door threatens to destroy their lives.
The evolution of women's lives spanning the second half of the twentieth century is at the center of this beautiful novel that richly portrays how much people know—and pretend not to know—about the secrets at the heart of a town, and a family.
"Like Jennifer Weiner's Mrs. Everything ... the novel sharply illuminates evolving social mores and tucks in plenty of womanly wisdom... . A masterful debut novel." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Schultz enlivens the narrative with sharp cultural commentary and precise period details. This story of family secrets rises above—and is tougher than—the rest." - Publishers Weekly
"Schultz offers up a deep exploration of the inner lives of one family. Their hopes, desires, and heartaches blaze forth on every page. A moving, unforgettable story about time, progress, and how the mistakes of one generation get repeated or repaired by the next." - J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Saints for All Occasions
"Connie Schultz's The Daughters of Erietown is a quiet force of a novel. It crept up on me, much the same way that time creeps up on these characters. I was struck by how well Schultz portrays a full life—childhood to old age—and all the small moments that shape us, for better or for worse. Its ambitious scope will leave readers wanting to curl up with it until they've finished." - Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes
"This is a big, deep, warm, and moving story of unforgettable women who make and shape their families. With the eye and ear of a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and the insight and language of a born storyteller, Schultz immerses us in The Daughters of Erietown, from love to loss and back." - Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of White Houses
This information about The Daughters of Erietown was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and a professional-in-residence in the journalism school at Kent State University, her alma mater. She is the author of two memoirs, Life Happens and ...And His Lovely Wife. Schultz lives in Cleveland with her husband, Sherrod Brown, and their rescue dogs Franklin and Walter. They have four children and seven grandchildren.
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