The Daughters of Erietown

Hidden desires,long-held secretsand the sacrifices people make for family and to realize their dreams are at the heart of this powerful first novel about people in a small town. By the popular Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. In the 1950sEllie and Brick are teenagers in love. As a basketball starBrick has the chance to escape his abusive father and become the first person in his blue-collar family to attend college. But after Ellie learns that she is pregnantthey get marriedshe gives up her dream of nursing schooland Brick gets a union card instead. This riveting novel tells the story of BrickEllieand their daughter Samanthaas the frustrations of unmet desires for sexloveidentityand meaningful work explode their lives. The evolution of women’s lives over decades of the second half of the 20th century is exploredin a story that richly portrays how much people know about each other and pretend not to–the secrets at the heart of a family.