First published 2019
Maud Gage Baum arrives at a Hollywood studio in 1939. She watches sixteen-year-old Judy Garland rehearse "Over the Rainbow" for the film adaptation of her late husband's book. The song's longing reminds Maud of their struggling years in South Dakota, before Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Maud sees how the director and producers pressure Judy to lose weight and perform on command. Her stage mother pushes just as hard. The seventy-eight-year-old widow recognizes something familiar in this young actress. Back in Aberdeen, Maud had known the real Dorothy who inspired Frank's story. She had promised to look after that prairie girl. Now she feels the same protective instinct toward Judy. The novel moves between two time periods. It follows Maud's early life as a suffragette's rebellious daughter and her hardscrabble marriage to Frank among the Dakota settlers who became his characters. It also captures the high-pressure world of 1939 Hollywood, where a teenage star faces adult demands. Maud must decide how far she will go to shield Judy from an industry that sees her as a commodity rather than a person.
Genres: drama, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, protective-instinct
Setting: Aberdeen, Dakota, Hollywood, South Dakota
Period: 1939, 19th-century
351 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books