Synopses & Reviews
A month after the United States enters World War II, the country is in upheaval and so is the Erhardt family. Nine-year-old Lark, her mother Arlene, and Aunt Betty are heading for San Diego, far away from Harvester, Minnesota and Arlene's shiftless husband. In the booming wartime economy, Arlene and Betty are soon at work, leaving Lark alone to explore their new neighborhood, a wartime housing project full of others with similarly uprooted lives. Away from prying eyes and small town expectations, the two women begin to forge new lives and new dreams dreams that Lark isn't always comfortable with. This richly detailed novel, told through Lark's observant eyes, reflects the era's tumultuous events in the everyday dramas of its memorable, finely nuanced characters.
Review
"Sullivan's leisurely pacing provides a quiet view into Lark's fears, hopes, and growing maturity." Booklist
Review
"Sullivan's beautifully transparent prose style instantly draws readers into the young girl's tale, so much so that many will forget they're holding a book in their hands." Minneapolis Star Tribune
Synopsis
It's 1942, just a month after the United States entered World War II. Lark, her mother Arlene, and Aunt Betty are in a station changing trains, leaving their lives in Harvester, Minnesota behind, and waiting for the train going to Los Angeles. Young men--soldiers--swarm the platform, heading off to war.
Against this dramatic backdrop, Gardenias revisits Faith Sullivan's most beloved characters from The Cape Ann, taking them from their hometown to new lives, new dreams, and new risks. Arlene has left her husband behind after he gambled away the money she'd saved to finally build the Cape Ann house of her and Lark's Depression-era dreams. As a new life takes shape in San Diego in a wartime housing project full of neighbors they know little about, Lark wonders, as does the reader, if a dream means losing everything of value or finally finding it.
Synopsis
This novel revisits the author's most beloved characters from The Cape Ann, taking them from their hometown to new lives, new dreams, and new risks in San Diego.
About the Author
Faith Sullivan was born and raised in southern Minnesota. Married to drama critic Dan Sullivan, she lived twenty-some years in New York and Los Angeles, returning frequently to Minnesota to keep her roots firmly planted in the prairie. Since 1989 she has lived in Minneapolis.