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  • Published: 17 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9780525479529
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $35.00

The Daughters of Erietown

A Novel



Hidden desires, long-held secrets, and the sacrifices people make for family and to realize their dreams are at the heart of this powerful New York Times bestselling novel about people in a small town. By the popular Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

"A moving, unforgettable story about time, progress, and how the mistakes of one generation get repeated or repaired by the next." --J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Saints For All Occasions

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Hidden desires, long-held secrets, and the sacrifices people make for family are at the heart of this powerful first novel by the popular Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist.

“A moving, unforgettable story about time, progress, and how the mistakes of one generation get repeated or repaired by the next.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Saints for All Occasions

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND NEW YORK POST

1957, Clayton Valley, Ohio. Ellie has the best grades in her class. Her dream is to go to nursing school and marry Brick McGinty. A basketball star, Brick has the chance to escape his abusive father and become the first person in his blue-collar family to attend college. But when Ellie learns that she is pregnant, everything changes. Just as Brick and Ellie revise their plans and build a family, a knock on the front door threatens to destroy their lives. 

The evolution of women’s lives spanning the second half of the twentieth century is at the center of this beautiful novel that richly portrays how much people know—and pretend not to know—about the secrets at the heart of a town, and a family.

  • Published: 17 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9780525479529
  • Imprint: Random House US Group
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $35.00

About the author

Connie Schultz

Connie Schultz, a bi-weekly columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2005. Her other accolades include the Scripps-Howard National Journalism Award, the National Headliner Award, the Batten Medal, and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for social-justice reporting. Her narrative series “The Burden of Innocence,” which chronicled the life of a man wrongly incarcerated for rape, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. After the series ran, the real rapist turned himself in, and he is now serving a five-year prison sentence. vote. In a more humorous vein, Connie shares her mother’s advice on men (“Don’t marry him until you see how he treats the waitress”) and warns men everywhere against using the dreaded f-word (it’s not the one you think). Along the way, Connie introduces us to the heroic people who populate our world and shows us how just one person can make a difference.

Charming, provocative, funny, and perceptive, Life Happens gives us, for the first time, Connie Schultz’s celebrated commentary in one irresistible volume. Life Happens challenges us to be more open and alive to others and to the world around us.

Connie is married to Ohio’s popular congressman Sherrod Brown.

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Praise for The Daughters of Erietown

  • "The kind of smart, authentic story that both men and women will find riveting. Don't miss it." --The Washington Post
  • "A sweeping, heartfelt tale . . . Schultz enlivens the narrative with sharp cultural commentary and precise period details. This story of family secrets rises above-- and is tougher than--the rest." --Publishers Weekly
  • "Like Jennifer Weiner's Mrs. Everything . . . the novel sharply illuminates evolving social mores and tucks in plenty of womanly wisdom. . . . A masterful debut novel." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)