What readers think of Baker Towers, plus links to write your own review.

This book will transport you to the 1940s, '50s and '60s to the imagined—but, yet, oh so real—mining town of Bakerton, Pennsylvania where the good times come and go based on the coal industry. This is the story of the Novak family. He works in the coal mines, while she stays home with their two sons and three daughters. He is Polish. She is Italian. And that's important in this little town where ethnicity determines where you live, what you eat, who your friends are and which church you attend. Each of these seven characters is fully created and fully human, giving the reader astute insight into how each one thinks, acts and reacts to the events swirling around them.

Author Jennifer Haigh has told a searing family drama of love and faith, tragedy and pain and the eternal well of hope. But the real power and genius of this book is that it made me feel as if I were actually living in Bakerton. The town and its residents just came alive for me and they moved over to let me join them—and in this sense the book is quite compelling. I highly recommend it.

I basically enjoyed this book but I thought the ending somewhat sad. The characters are well defined but none of them seem very happy as they go through their lives. I might read another book by this author.

The book takes place after WWII in Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a mining town. The Italian and Polish immigrant miners live within the company confines without much of a future. The Towers are two huge piles of mine waste that play a part in the background of the town’s story. We follow the five children of deceased Stanley Novak and his widow, Rose. The family comes and goes during the three decades of the story, each returning to the home periodically, some staying and a few living away.

I liked the book. Much is going on, yet the series of events are separate, holding interest until the very end.