Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 336 pages
Audiobook Length: 10 hours and 30 minutes
First Published: 2024
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Publisher’s Description
1918: As the Great War rages, Jessie Carson takes a leave of absence from the New York Public Library to work for the American Committee for Devastated France. Founded by millionaire Anne Morgan, this group of international women help rebuild devastated French communities just miles from the front. Upon arrival, Jessie strives to establish something that the French have never seen—children’s libraries. She turns ambulances into bookmobiles and trains the first French female librarians. Then she disappears.
1987: When NYPL librarian and aspiring writer Wendy Peterson stumbles across a passing reference to Jessie Carson in the archives, she becomes consumed with learning her fate. In her obsessive research, she discovers that she and the elusive librarian have more in common than their work at New York’s famed library, but she has no idea their paths will converge in surprising ways across time.
Quotes from Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade
Mostly, I feel a distance from people, like we’re in a subway station, and they’re on a different platform. I can’t cross the tracks to join them, and the noise from the trains is so loud I can barely make out what they’re saying.
About Janet Skeslien Charles
Charles was born in Conrad, Montana, USA. She has a degree in English and Russian. She spends her time writing and traveling. She currently divides her time between Montana and Paris, France. Visit the author’s website →
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