The Silver Star: A Novel

In 1970, twelve-year-old Bean and her fifteen-year-old sister Liz are left in a small California town when their mother Charlotte abandons them with only a month or two of money. After discovering a police car at their house, the sisters decide to take a bus to Virginia to stay with their widowed Uncle Tinsley in the family's decaying ancestral mansion. As Bean adjusts to their new circumstances, she learns about her father's identity and the reasons her mother originally left Virginia. The sisters begin working for Jerry Maddox, the mill foreman, to earn money. While Liz is intelligent and independent, preferring solitude and reading Edgar Allan Poe, Bean adapts more easily when school begins. However, Liz becomes increasingly withdrawn, and a significant incident occurs between Liz and Maddox. This novel explores how a family navigates hardship and finds ways to maintain love and connection despite the world's flaws and injustices.