First published 2002
The Piper sisters grow up in the coal mining towns of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, bound together by music and torn apart by the dark secrets their father keeps. Each sister responds differently to the weight of family history that spans five generations. Their stories stretch from the mining communities of Nova Scotia to the trenches of World War I, where their father served, and into the vibrant jazz clubs of 1920s New York City. Music runs through their blood like a river, connecting them across distances and decades, yet the same artistic gift that defines them also threatens to destroy their bonds. The sisters must confront what their father has hidden from them and decide whether the truth will liberate them or shatter what remains of their family. MacDonald weaves their individual struggles into a larger story about how the past shapes the present and how love can survive even the most devastating betrayals.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, music, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, New York City
Period: 1920s
508 pages · Paperback · Scribner
Content warnings: death, war