- Follow-up novel to Matrons and Madams, set in small town Northern Ontario, where two women join the struggling masses from all walks of life trying to weather the Great Depression
- Portrays small town social dynamics in a sweeping historical tale inspired by her family history
- Author is the wife of the former Governor General of Canada, David Johnston
- Author draws on her background as a physical therapist, her extensive experience in Canadian politics, and her personal connection with the Shingwauk Indian Residential School
Autorentext
Sharon Johnston has received five honorary degrees for her work in mental health awareness and has served for five years as an Honorary Captain (Navy) for the Military Personnel Command. She lives on a farm near Ottawa.
Klappentext
A sweeping tale of life in Sault Ste. Marie from the 1930s through the Second World War. Clara Durling and her teenage daughter, Ivy, move to Sault Ste. Marie in 1932, where Clara is starting a job as head nurse at the local residential school. As Clara adjusts to life in the Soo, she discovers the town is a many-layered society. Clara works with Indigenous children who have been ripped from their communities and now live frightening, lonely lives in a crumbling building. While Clara struggles to deal with the despair at the school, Ivy makes a friend from the working-class Italian community and has a brush with the bootlegging underworld. After high school, Ivy heads to nursing school in Montreal but finds society's expectations for young women do not foster their self-reliance. As Ivy struggles with sexism and societal norms, she and Clara seek to bring humanity to those living at the margins of society.