First published 2019
Jo and Bethie Kaufman grow up in their family's pristine Detroit home during the 1950s. Jo rebels against expectations, reading voraciously and fighting for justice while her sister Bethie embraces her beauty and dreams of conventional happiness. The world shifts around them as they reach adulthood. Free love and Vietnam War protests reshape American culture. Bethie abandons her traditional aspirations and plunges into the counterculture movement, seeking adventure and rejecting commitment. Jo takes the opposite path, marrying young and raising children in suburban Connecticut while watching social change from the sidelines. Each sister finds herself living the life the other once wanted. Jo observes the women's liberation movement instead of leading it. Bethie wanders through relationships and experiences instead of building the stable family she once craved. Both women feel disconnected from their authentic selves and struggle to find genuine happiness in their chosen roles.
Genres: fiction, family-life, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, sisters
Setting: Connecticut, Detroit
Period: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s
480 pages · Hardcover · Atria Books
Content warnings: sexism