FICTION

Miller's Valley

Random. Apr. 2016. 272p. ISBN 9780812996081. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780812996098. F
COPY ISBN
OrangeReviewStarIn the 1960s, the residents of Miller's Valley, a small Pennsylvania town that has seen more than its share of flooding, are being pressured by government officials to accept eminent domain, move out, and watch their town fill with water for a fancy new recreation area. Mimi Miller is a bright, independent teenager with a gift for science who's read the geologists' reports and understands the dark lies hidden beneath the promises of modern living. Her fracturing, strong-minded family is torn. Brother Tom, once a likable high school troublemaker, has returned from Vietnam a ruined man. Her Aunt Ruth, trapped by her own secrets, hasn't left the small house on the Miller property for years. Mimi's parents are divided; her nurse mother accepts the inevitable, while her farmer father can't imagine life anywhere else. Yet it's Mimi who holds them all together at no small cost to her own future.
VERDICT In this crisply told story of progress, loss, love, deception, loyalty, and grace, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Quindlen once again captures her readers' attention from first page to last. [See Prepub Alert, 10/12/15.]
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