Vendor
	Fletcher Agency Melissa Chinchillo
Original language
English
Categories
Fiction & Related items

ALL THE LITTLE HOPES

Leah Weiss

A Southern story of friendship forged by books and bees, when the timeless troubles of growing up meet the murky shadows of World War II.

Deep in the tobacco land of North Carolina, nothing's the same since the boys shipped off to war and worry took their place. Thirteen-year-old Lucy Brown is curious and clever, but she can't make sense of it all. Then Allie Bert Tucker comes to town, an outcast with a complicated past, and Lucy believes that together they can solve crimes. Just like her hero, Nancy Drew.

That chance comes when a man goes missing, a woman stops speaking, and an eccentric gives the girls a mystery that takes them beyond the ordinary. Their quiet town, seasoned with honeybees and sweet tea, becomes home to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp―and more men go missing. The pair set out to answer the big question: do we ever really know who the enemy is?

Lush with Southern atmosphere, All The Little Hopes, is the story of two girls growing up while war creeps closer, blurring the difference between what's right, what's wrong, and what we know to be true

About the Author

Leah Weiss was raised in the foothills of Virginia and is the author of the debut novel IF THE CREEK DON'T RISE. Her short stories have been published in The Simple Life magazine, Every Day Fiction and Deep South Magazine. This is her second novel. You can see more at leahweiss.com.

Available products
Book Published 2021-07-27 by Sourcebooks

Comments

“A strong, formidable novel" ―Library Journal

"[A] striking debut..." ―BUSTLE

Weiss (If the Creek Don’t Rise) delivers an intriguing coming of age story of two 13-year-old girls whose summer idyll is complicated by mysterious events. Lucy Brown lives on a tobacco farm in Riverton, N.C., in 1943 with her six siblings. She forms a quick friendship with Bert Tucker, who comes to Riverton to stay with her pregnant aunt Violet, whose husband Larry has disappeared, after Bert’s mother dies. Lucy’s mother then brings Bert into the Browns’ home when Violet is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Lucy’s understanding of WWII is based on her knowledge of her older soldier brother, Everett, and of her father’s deal with the U.S. government to provide beeswax. But after Riverton becomes home to a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, Lucy learns firsthand of the war’s divisiveness, as rumors and distrust run rampant through the community. Lucy, an avid Nancy Drew reader, then bands with Bert in an effort solve the mystery of Larry’s disappearance, and of a singer who went missing after performing at a town dance. Weiss expertly highlights how Lucy and Bert’s innocence is altered by their experiences, with spot-on depictions of the rural Southern community. This is magnetic from the start.

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"Small town North Carolina during WWII is brought vividly to life with German prisoners, missing husbands, and hidden stories. All the Little Hopes is abuzz with fascinating charactersAunt Fanniebelle, Trula Freed, and especially Bert and Lu, two very different girls on the cusp of adulthood, learning about lifes mysteries as they play Nancy Drew and investigate three puzzling disappearances. Lush, poetic prose, characters youll not forget, and immersion in a past that has lessons for today make this a compelling read." - Vicki Lane, author of And the Crows Took Their Eyes and the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries

"All the Little Hopes is as warm-hearted as the sun that beats down on Lu's family's tobacco fields. With feisty heroines and a fascinating yet little-known piece of American history as a backdrop, this is a coming-of-age story with a mystery at its heart. Yet the novel's crowning achievement is Weiss's creation of the Browns - a family that, in keeping with the best literary traditions, every reader will long to be a part of." - Kate Moore, author of the New York Times bestseller The Radium Girls and The Woman They Could Not Silence