A widely acclaimed author (Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award) turns her gaze to the US in the Thirties (Depression, Prohibition, gangsters) and Forties (WWII, Brooklyn Naval Yard, the Merchant Marine's important and dangerous role, and the sudden emergence of women as a vital part of the war effort.)
Eleven-year-old Anna Kerrigan is brave and clever beyond her years, but she doesn't know that her adored father is on the fringes of racketeering. She is devastated when one day, he simply doesn't return home.Nineteen-year-old Anna takes a job as a parts inspector at the Brooklyn Naval Yard. She is good at her work but longs to become a diver--complete with 200-pound suit and helmet, working on repairing the big ships. The intricacies of diving--the dangers and the exhilaration-are beautifully portrayed as Anna fights to be prove herself. At the same time, she becomes involved with a dangerous but alluring man--a gangster with whom her father had dealings. All this plays out against a meticulously researched and beautifully evoked background of life as it was in these particular times and places. Wonderful complex characters, quietly beautiful writing, surprising plot--it's an absorbing read.