Daughter of Providence

In this "sympathetic [and] compelling" historical novel set in Depression era Rhode Island, a young woman untangles family secrets to claim independence ( The Plain Dealer).

Summer, 1934. Anne Dodge, raised by her old-money father in a small Rhode Island coastal town, has always been told that her Portuguese mother abandoned them when she was six. Now home from college, Anne's ambitions to become a boat builder are complicated by her father's plan to reopen the family mill. But then Anne learns that she has a half- sister, Maria Cristina-and when Maria Cristina comes to live with Anne and her father, ugly secrets rise to the surface, threatening the fate of the entire family.

Set on the New England coast at a time when jazz was the rage, Prohibition was ending, and gender expectations were severe and stifling, Daughter of Providence is a gripping story of loss and rediscovery in the tradition of Richard Russo and Annie Proulx.