NATIONAL BESTSELLER A Recommended Book of 2019 from Entertainment Weekly * O,The Oprah Magazine * Southern Living * BBC * Huffington Post * Lit Hub * Kirkus * Bustle * Publishers Weekly * BookRiot * Popsugar * Bookish * The Boston Globe * The Seattle Times A sweeping and enchanting new novel from the widely belovedaward-winning author Elizabeth McCracken about three generations of an unconventional New England family who own and operate a candlepin bowling alley From the day she is discovered unconscious in a New England cemetery at the turn of the twentieth centuryΓÇönothing but a bowling balla candlepinand fifteen pounds of gold on her personΓÇöBertha Truitt is an enigma to everyone in SalfordMassachusetts. She has no past to speak ofor at least none she is willing to revealand her mysterious origin scandalizes and intrigues the townspeopleas does her choice to marry and start a family with Leviticus Spraguethe doctor who revived her. But Bertha is pluckytenaciousand entrepreneurialand the bowling alley she opens quickly becomes SalfordΓÇÖs most defining landmarkΓÇöwith Bertha its most notable resident. When Bertha dies in a freak accidenther past resurfaces in the form of a heretofore-unheard-of sonwho arrives in Salford claiming he is heir apparent to Truitt Alleys. Soon it becomes clear thateven in her deathBerthaΓÇÖs defining spirit and the implications of her obfuscations live oninfecting and affecting future generations through inheritance battlesmurky paternitiesand hidden wills. In a voice laced with insight and her signature sharp humorElizabeth McCracken has written an epic family saga set against the backdrop of twentieth-century America. Bowlaway is both a stunning feat of language and a brilliant unraveling of a familyΓÇÖs myths and secretsits passions and betrayalsand the ties that bind and the rifts that divide.