First published 2008
Amy Dickinson finds herself alone with a young daughter after her marriage falls apart. Despite her family's history of failed relationships, she turns to the women who raised her in Freeville, a village of 458 people where her family has lived for over two centuries. Amy stumbles through career changes, awkward dates, and adult education while moving between London, Washington D.C., and Chicago. She packs up her daughter and their oversized tabby cat for cross-country moves, searching for stability. Weekend after weekend, summer after summer, she returns to Freeville, where her female relatives live within ten houses of each other. These women offer practical wisdom and sharp humor as Amy learns to navigate single parenthood. Her family has worked the same land for generations, raising livestock and building homes with their own hands. They teach Amy that family means showing up, even when life gets messy. Through professional setbacks and personal embarrassments, Amy discovers that her small hometown holds the key to understanding what really matters. The book reveals how ordinary women in an unremarkable place can shape extraordinary resilience through simple acts of love and loyalty.
Genres: family-life, american-fiction, adult-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, second-chance
Setting: Freeville, Chicago, London, Washington D.C.
Period: 21st-century
240 pages · Hardcover · Hyperion