We were thrilled to hear that Amy Bloom’s LUCKY US hit the August LibraryReads List at #2. A department favorite, this book follows two sisters as they criss-cross the U.S. and is a a brilliantly written, deeply moving, fantastically funny novel of love, heartbreak, and luck.
Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star and Eva the sidekick, journey through 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris’s ambitions take the pair across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, and to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island.
“A hard-luck coming-of-age story with heart.” —Kirkus, starred review
“Told partially from Eva’s perspective and with epistolary interludes over the novel’s 1939-49 span, Eva’s world is one of endless opportunities for reinvention—and redemption—if one only takes them. Spare and trusting, Bloom invited readers to fill the spaces her pretty prose allows, with true and beautiful results.” —Booklist, starred review
“For her latest, Bloom offers something unrepentantly quirky, a madcap romp complete with road trips, secret identities, aspiring Hollywood starlets, and a tarot card-reading fake psychic…At its core, this is a novel of resilience, with the war serving as both a life-changing event and no more than the background noise of an impoverished existence. Full of intriguing characters and lots of surprises…readers of literary fiction and 20th-century historical…will find it an excellent choice.” —Library Journal, starred review