[close]
Precocious 12-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family. Then tragedy strikes--and Lou and her younger brother, Oz, must go with their invalid mother to live on their great-grandmother's farm in the Virginia mountains. Suddenly Lou finds herself coming of age in a new landscape, making her first true friend, and experiencing adventures tragic, comic, and audacious. But the forces of greed and justice are about to clash over her new home...and as their struggle is played out in a crowded Virginia courtroom, it will determine the future of two children, an entire town, and the mountains they love.I've read all of David Baldacci's series over the years but this was so different from all of those. As I was reading it I kept thinking that it sounded almost like an autobiography, and then at the back of the book were family pictures from Baldacci's grandparents and his mother. So turns out it was a "labor of love".
This book displays what a magnificent story teller David Baldacci really is. It contains all types of surprises mixed with a scene that will bring tears to the strongest of readers. Taking place from the 1930's and 1940's it offers the reader an opportunity to take a vacation to another time and place and share in lives rich in family history.
