It is 1970. 'Bean' Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman who 'flees every place she's ever lived at the first sign of trouble', takes off to 'find herself'. She leaves the girls eugh money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that has been in the family for generations. An impetuous optimist, Bean discovers who her father was and learns many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, so Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Madox, foreman of the mill in town, a big man who bullies workers, tenants and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister, inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, n-conformist. But when school starts in the autumn, it is Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens between Liz and Maddox...
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Uk, Simon & Schuster Ltd
ISBN-10
147112908x
ISBN-13
9781471129087
eBay Product ID (ePID)
148720966
Product Key Features
Format
Trade Paperback (Uk), Paperback
Language
English
Topic
General & Literary Fiction
Author
Jeannette Walls
Genre
General & Literary Fiction
Dimensions
Weight
332g
Additional Product Features
Place of Publication
London
First Published
2013
Date of Publication
01/06/2013
Country of Publication
United Kingdom
Author Biography
Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in the southwest and Welch, Virginia. She graduated from Barnard College and was a journalist in New York City for twenty years. She now lives in rural Virginia with her husband, the writer John Taylor.