Release Date: August 4, 2020

Hidden within the grand architecture of the New York Public Library, Laura Lyons lives in an apartment with her husband and their children. In 1913, Laura seems to have an idyllic life, but she yearns for the same passion that her husband has for his novel in progress. Hoping to find her drive in life and help with her family’s finances, Laura applies to the Columbia School of Journalism. The search for stories takes her across the city, where she wants to go beyond the “women’s assignments.” This leads to Laura connecting with an old classmate who introduces her to the new bohemia in Greenwich Village – where women discuss suffrage, politics, and traditional roles. As Laura’s world is expanding and changing, her home life threatens to fall apart when a string of thefts occur at the library. Laura must choose her path forward or risk losing what she has always known.

Sadie Donovan’s dream job as a curator in the library’s famous Berg Collection is disrupted when items for the upcoming exhibit begin to disappear, eighty years later in 1993. As she works to uncover the truth, Sadie must also grapple with her family history as the granddaughter of the famous feminist essayist Laura Lyons. Teaming up with the library’s private investigator leads Sadie to reveal shocking realities of her family’s involvement in those thefts eighty years earlier.  

Fiona Davis, best-selling author of The Dollhouse, The Address, The Masterpiece, and The Chelsea Girls, delivers another carefully crafted historical fiction novel centered around a New York City landmark. This story encompasses mystery, women’s rights, and most of all a love for reading and books.