[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Dutton in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
1913
The Lyons live in the Fifth Avenue branch of the New York Public Library. Jack is the superintendent for the library, and he and Laura live in an apartment in the building with their two kids. After work each night, Jack works on his novel, and Laura manages the kids and their routines. But Laura longs for more. She’s been accepted into a journalism program at Columbia University – one that accepts women. Laura wants to write, too. If she could get a reporting job, she could help with the family’s finances so Jack would have more time to finish his book.
1993
Sadie is working on a special collection at the New York Public Library. As part of the exhibit she’s preparing, her boss wants more examples of Laura Lyons’ work or personal effects. Her feminist essays have had a resurgence of popularity lately. Sadie hasn’t told him that Laura was her grandmother. She would have – she found some great examples of her early writing that would be fun additions to the exhibit. But she also found references to some missing books from the time Laura’s family lived in the library. Until Sadie can find out what happened then, she wants to keep her connection to the Lyons to herself. Books have started to go missing from the collection Sadie is curating, and the connection to the 80 year old mystery could make a difficult situation even worse.
Review
This was an interesting split timeline story connected by family relationships and the thefts at the NYPL. Beyond that, Sadie’s story is also about family, her work, and her identity following her divorce. Laura’s story is even more involved, focusing on the role of women in the early 1900s. She goes back to school to pursue a career in a field dominated by men. She longs for meaning and a challenge outside her home, but she also feels guilt for not being available to her children all the time. She connects with women in her community who are pushing for equality, suffrage, access to contraception and health care, etc. The myriad of issues in 1913 made that section of the story more intricate, but my personal preference was for the “contemporary” story with Sadie and her family and work.
The mystery of the book thefts is well done – in both timelines – and I loved the ways they were connected. I didn’t click with the characters very much in this book, but I was captivated by this mystery. The author does a great job putting together a mystery with an historic story that also explores the lives of grandmother and granddaughter. Readers who enjoy split timeline stories should check this one out. (Some Christian examples of this type of storytelling can be seen in Rachel Hauck’s work – The Writing Desk and The Love Letter are two examples.)
(Language, sex, LGBTQ+: Bisexual and F/F relationships. TW: Suicide)