The Life She Was Given: A Moving and Emotional Saga of Family

The Life She Was Given: A Moving and Emotional Saga of Family and Resilient Women

A GREAT GROUP READS Selection of the Womenâ€™s National Book Association and National Reading Group MonthÂ

GOODREADS Best of the Month

From acclaimed author Ellen Marie Wiseman comes a vivid, daring novel about the devastating power of family secretsâ€”beginning in the poignant, lurid world of a Depression-era traveling circus and coming full circle in the transformative 1950s.

On a summer evening in 1931, Lilly Blackwood glimpses circus lights from the grimy window of her attic bedroom. Lilly isnâ€™t allowed to explore the meadows around Blackwood Manor. Sheâ€™s never even ventured beyond her narrow room. Momma insists itâ€™s for Lillyâ€™s own protection, that people would be afraid if they saw her. But on this unforgettable night, Lilly is taken outside for the first timeâ€”and sold to the circus sideshow.

More than two decades later, nineteen-year-old Julia Blackwood has inherited her parentsâ€™ estate and horse farm. For Julia, home was an unhappy place full of strict rules and forbidden rooms, and she hopes that returning might erase those painful memories. Instead, she becomes immersed in a mystery involving a hidden attic room and photos of circus scenes featuring a striking young girl.

At first, The Barlow Brothersâ€™ Circus is just another prison for Lilly. But in this rag-tag, sometimes brutal world, Lilly discovers strength, friendship, and a rare affinity for animals. Soon, thanks to elephants Pepper and JoJo and their handler, Cole, Lilly is no longer a sideshow spectacle but the circusâ€™s biggest attraction. . .until tragedy and cruelty collide. It will fall to Julia to learn the truth about Lillyâ€™s fate and her familyâ€™s shocking betrayal, and find a way to make Blackwood Manor into a place of healing at last.

Moving between Julia and Lillyâ€™s stories, Ellen Marie Wiseman portrays two extraordinary, very different women in a novel that, while tender and heartbreaking, offers moments of joy and indomitable hope.
Country USA
Brand Kensington Publishing Corporation
Manufacturer Kensington
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 26249482
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 2017-07-25
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781617734496

Country	USA
Brand	Kensington Publishing Corporation
Manufacturer	Kensington
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	26249482
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	2017-07-25
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781617734496

The Life She Was Given: A Moving and Emotional Saga of Family and Resilient Women

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