by Fiona Davis
First published 2020
Laura Lyons lives inside the New York Public Library in 1913, where her husband works as superintendent. Their family occupies an apartment within the grand building itself. Laura applies to Columbia Journalism School, seeking something beyond her role as wife and mother. Her studies lead her through the city to Greenwich Village, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club. This radical women's group encourages members to voice opinions on suffrage, birth control, and women's rights. Laura begins questioning her traditional life. Then valuable books disappear from the library, threatening both her home and the institution she loves. Eighty years later, Sadie Donovan curates exhibits at the same library. She is the granddaughter of Laura Lyons, now remembered as a famous essayist. Rare manuscripts and books vanish from Sadie's exhibit at the Berg Collection. She partners with a private security expert to find the thief. The investigation forces Sadie to confront uncomfortable truths about her family's past and uncovers connections to the library's greatest historical tragedy.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dual-timeline, family-legacy, found-family
Setting: Columbia Journalism School, Greenwich Village, New York Public Library
Period: 1913, 1990s
354 pages · Hardcover · Dutton