First published 2000
Twelve-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal's world shatters when tragedy forces her family to leave bustling New York City in 1940. She and her younger brother Oz must accompany their now-invalid mother to live with their great-grandmother on a remote Virginia mountain farm. Lou struggles to adapt to this stark new landscape, so different from the urban streets she knew. She forms her first genuine friendship and faces adventures that test her courage in ways both heartbreaking and absurd. But outside forces threaten even this fragile new stability. Greedy interests set their sights on the mountain land, bringing conflict that will spill into a Virginia courtroom. The legal battle that unfolds will decide not just property rights, but the destiny of two displaced children, an entire mountain community, and the wilderness they have grown to cherish. Lou must find strength she never knew she possessed as adult struggles reshape her understanding of home, family, and belonging.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: New York City, Virginia
Period: 1940
ebook · Oxmoor House