by Hazel Gaynor
First published 2025
Emily Gale abandons the noise of 1924 Chicago with her husband Henry, trading city streets for the open prairie of Liberal, Kansas. The move means leaving behind her sister Annie, once her closest companion. By 1932, Emily has built a new life among the farming community, but tragedy arrives when her orphaned niece Dorothy comes to live with them. The wide-eyed girl disrupts Emily's careful routines just as drought and dust storms begin destroying their crops and home. The harsh weather turns their sanctuary into a place of constant worry. When buried secrets from Emily's past surface, she faces losing Dorothy, the child who has become the center of her world. This story reveals how one woman created a home strong enough to nurture the girl who would one day journey to Oz.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Chicago, Kansas, Liberal
Period: 1924, 1932
400 pages · Hardcover · HarperCollins