by Anna Solomon
First published 2016
Beatrice Haven creeps from her uncle's Cape Ann house one night in 1917 and places her newborn beneath a pear tree. She watches Emma Murphy, an Irish Catholic woman, discover and claim the child. Beatrice, an unwed Jewish pianist from a wealthy industrial family, planned to attend Radcliffe and forget this shameful chapter. Ten years pass. Prohibition rules the land, xenophobia grips post-war America, and Beatrice's dreams have crumbled. She returns to Cape Ann seeking shelter from her disappointments. Through the local quarry's rum-running operations, fate brings her face to face with Emma Murphy again. Emma has raised Beatrice's daughter as Lucy Pear, now a spirited ten-year-old who dresses as a boy and guards her own mysteries. Two mothers discover they share one remarkable child. Their worlds collide across the rigid boundaries of class, religion, and social expectation in 1920s New England.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Cape Ann, New England, Radcliffe
Period: 1917, 1920s, Prohibition
336 pages · Hardcover · Viking
Content warnings: racism