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Overview
It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone-Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When the authorities catch up to them that same night, Homan escapes into the darkness, and Lynnie is caught. But before she is forced back into the institution, she whispers two words to Martha: "Hide her." And so begins the 40-year epic journey of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia-lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact and extraordinary love.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780446574457
- ISBN-10: 0446574457
- Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
- Publish Date: February 2012
- Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.65 pounds
- Page Count: 368
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New paperback releases for reading groups
LAST GASP IN DODGE CITY
Expertly crafted and wonderfully authentic, Mary Doria Russell’s novel Doc is a crackerjack account of the life of Doc Holliday. Raised in the South, trained as a dentist—and dying from tuberculosis—Dr. John Henry Holliday, at the age of 22, leaves his Atlanta home for the West in a last-ditch attempt to save his own life. With the hope that the dry air of the frontier will cure what ails him, Doc settles in Dodge City, Kansas, opening a dentist’s office and earning money as a gambler. When a boy named Johnnie Sanders is found dead, the murder puts lawman Wyatt Earp on high alert. Doc, as it turns out, also has an interest in the crime. The friendship of these two larger-than-life legends is memorably rendered by Russell, who writes expertly about one of the richest chapters in America’s past.
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In The Story of Beautiful Girl, Rachel Simon offers a stirring tale about two unlikely lovers: Homan, a deaf black man, and developmentally disabled Lynnie, who is young and white. The time is 1968, and the place is the Pennsylvania State School for the Incurable and Feebleminded. In the midst of the school’s oppressive atmosphere, Lynnie and Homan develop serious feelings for one another and decide to escape. When Lynnie gives birth to their baby, she’s forced to leave the infant with a kind widow named Martha. Brought back to the school by authorities, Lynnie finds herself hopelessly separated from Homan, who gets away safely. Simon skillfully develops their separate stories into a narrative that spans 40 years, tracing the arc of their growth into parents and successful communicators. This is a poignant story with sensitive subject matter at its heart, yet Simon never lapses into sentimentality. Her courageous novel is at once an unforgettable love story and a moving look at the lives of the disabled.
TOP PICK IN BOOK CLUBS
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