The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club, started by Alice Campbell in her Cambridge Bookshop, was attended by four freshmen women in college there--Caroline, Tess, Evie, and Merritt-- starting in the fall of 1955. The book, by Julia Bryan Thomas, will be published June 6.
This is also Alice’s “freshman” year as she has left
her husband, traveled from Chicago, and settled into a small store where she
can surround herself with books she loves. It is Tess who first enters the
bookstore and learns about the club. Recruiting her roommate and two others,
they attend the gathering once a month. In the fall, they read and discuss Jane
Eyre, A Room of One’s Own, and The Age of Innocence.
The bookstore is not only a safe harbor for Alice but
also for the four students who must deal with a society that wants to limit
their options to marriage and children. With each book club meeting, the young
women and Alice learn a little bit more about each other and life itself.
When a tragedy occurs to one of the “college girls,” she
keeps it a secret as she withdraws from socializing with the once cohesive
foursome. Before the freshman year is finished, the four young women will find
their paths greatly altered from what they expected.
Julia Bryan Thomas’ writing career started with
exchanging letters filled with poems and stories with her grandmother. Her novel For Those Who Are Lost received
much attention for its story about the children of Guernsey displaced during
World War II. Born and raised in Tulsa, she grew up studying literature. A graduate
of Northeastern State University and the Yale Writers’ Workshop, she is married
to mystery novelist Will Thomas.
No comments:
Post a Comment