About this item
One night in 1917, Beatrice Haven sneaks out of her uncle s house in Cape Ann, Massachusetts, leaves her newborn baby at the foot of a pear tree, and watches as another woman claims the infant as her own. The unwed daughter of wealthy Jewish industrialists and a gifted pianist bound for Radcliffe, Bea plans to leave her shameful secret behind and make a fresh start. Ten years later, Prohibition is in full swing, post-WWI America is in the grips of rampant xenophobia, and Bea s hopes for her future remain unfulfilled. She returns to her uncle s house, seeking a refuge from her unhappiness. But she discovers far more when the rum-running manager of the local quarry inadvertently reunites her with Emma Murphy, the headstrong Irish Catholic woman who has been raising Bea s abandoned child now a bright, bold, cross-dressing girl named Lucy Pear, with secrets of her own.
About the Author
Anna Solomon is the author of The Book of V., forthcoming on May 5, 2020, Leaving Lucy Pear, and The Little Bride, a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, and the curator of @unkempt_real_life on Instagram. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Boston Globe, One Story, Ploughshares, and Slate. Solomon is co-editor with Eleanor Henderson of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers. Previously, she worked as a radio journalist. Anna was born and raised in Gloucester, Massachusetts and lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and two children.
