The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights
A Novel
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“A haunting meditation on the bonds between mothers and daughters. Zeldis offers a fascinating look into historic New York City and New Orleans, and her skill as a storyteller is matched by her compassion for her characters. What a beautiful read.”—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnolia Palace
“By turns heartbreaking and heartwarming, Kitty Zeldis’s The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights, set against the backdrop of the not-always-so-roaring Twenties, is an only-in-America story of reinvention, rising above tragedy, and finding family.”—Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author of Band of Sisters
For fans of Fiona Davis, Beatriz Williams, and Joanna Goodman, a mesmerizing historical novel from Kitty Zeldis, the author of Not Our Kind, about three women in 1920s New York City and the secrets they hold.
Brooklyn, 1924. As New York City enters the jazz age, the lives of three very different women are about to converge in unexpected ways. Recently arrived from New Orleans, Beatrice is working to establish a chic new dress shop with help from Alice, the orphaned teenage ward she brought north with her. Down the block, newlywed Catherine is restless in her elegant brownstone, longing for a baby she cannot conceive.
When Bea befriends Catherine and the two start to become close, Alice feels abandoned and envious, and runs away to Manhattan. Her departure sets into motion a series of events that will force each woman to confront the painful secrets of her past in order to move into the happier future she seeks.
Moving from the bustling streets of early twentieth century New York City to late nineteenth-century Russia and the lively quarters of New Orleans in the 1910s, The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights is a story of the families we are born into and the families we choose, and of the unbreakable bonds between women.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Zeldis (Not Our Kind) highlights the complex relationships between three women in 1924 Brooklyn. Newly married Catherine Berrill becomes upset each month when she discovers she is not yet pregnant. One day, to distract from her disappointment, she takes a walk and encounters a dress shop run by new Brooklyn residents Bea Jones and Alice Wilkerson. Bea, a Jewish woman who left Russia for New Orleans, recently closed her New Orleans bordello and brought her teenage ward Alice, an orphan, to start anew. Bea and Catherine's bond brings on intense jealousy from Alice, who seems to resent their relationship and starts spending time away from the shop. By the third act, Zeldis reveals how Bea has kept a secret from Catherine, which explains Alice's resentment, and Bea must decide whether to reveal her secrets, knowing that to do so might destroy her much coveted friendship with Catherine. Though a bit melodramatic by the end, Zeldis's characters are well crafted and the narrative propulsive. Historical fiction fans will be drawn to this snapshot of an era less often portrayed in the genre.