Monday, March 12, 2007

Baker Towers

BAKER TOWERS: Jennifer Haigh: William Morrow: Fiction: 334 pages

In 1944 in the mining town of Bakerton, PA, a Polish miner dies suddenly, leaving behind his Italian wife and five children. The story follows the lives of each of the children over the next 25 years as they leave and return to Bakerton, struggle with love and marriage, and develop relationships with one another.

Haigh realistically and lovingly portrays a town and a family dominated by the mines. Baker Towers has a very similar feel to Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn—both enjoyable coming of age stories that chronicle the hardships of working families.

MBC

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