Lost Mothers

A Nebraska tornado swept away their mother when Leni was nine and her sister Amelia was twelve. Though bound together by tragedy, the sisters grow apart-Leni wrapping herself in silence and solitude while Amelia craves the chaos of a large, close-knit family. Following their different paths, Leni becomes a librarian and Amelia marries into the large family she always wanted. Concerned with her sister's narrow small-town life, Amelia insists that Leni join her husband's family at their New Hampshire lake house for a massive Fourth of July reunion. Over the long weekend, a stifling heat wave settles over the house and simmering resentments-between the sisters, between husbands and wives, between mothers and daughters-boil over, on the beach and in the kitchen and behind closed doors. As a tornado-like storm rolls in over the lake, devastating secrets are revealed, leaving no one unscathed. "Elizabeth Barrett has successfully created what many writers find too daunting: an extended-family lakeside holiday. Her intelligent and compassionate insights into the complex feelings about pregnancy among several women ripple among spouses, relatives, and in-laws, finally becoming a full-blown storm. Lost Mothers is a page-turner well worth reading." - Martha Barron Barrett, author of Slow Travel