Daughters Of The New World

The Story

In this striking new novel, Susan Richards Shreve gives us a breathtaking portrait of America since 1900, as witnessed by four generations of strong, passionate women. First is Anna, the lovely immigrant servant whose marriage to a wellborn doctor leads to their expulsion from his Washington family. It is their daughter, Amanda, born New Year's Day, 1900, whose story is the center of the book. Strong-minded and courageous, she runs off to France to photograph World War I and later travels the United States, capturing the pathos of the lives of women and the poor. Her work defines her character as well as that of the swift-moving twentieth century, in which lives are recalled as a series of brief intense moments strung together like a picture album. The ensuing generations--Sara, in the forties, and Eleanor, in the sixties--share Amanda's refusal to bow to convention.