One of the literary world's rising stars, Jennifer Haigh earned coast-to-coast raves and the PEN/Hemingway Award for her debut, Mrs. Kimble. In her second novel, Haigh not only meets but surpasses the expectations established by her first book. Baker Towers traces the lives of three generations in a community that tenderly echoes the American experience. A family album peopled with vivid characters, this is the story of an America long past, a haunting meditation on the passage of time.

Polish immigrant Stanley Novak worked the night shift in the coal mines of western Pennsylvania, in close-knit Bakerton, a town named for its mines. When he dies suddenly, his widow, Rose, is left to raise their five children. The oldest son, George, becomes a soldier in World War II. Their daughter Joyce will join the military as well, hoping the Air Force can give her opportunities that working-class Bakerton could not. Her sister Dorothy takes a job in Washington, D.C., where her fragile beauty and romantic ideals make her dangerously vulnerable. The two youngest children grow up without a father while seeking their places in a rapidly changing world. But at each turning point in love or fortune or work, the siblings can't forget where they come from. Each, in his own way, feels the inexorable pull of home.

Evoking a long-lost time and place with powerful precision, Baker Towers follows the Novak family through three decades of sweeping change. You'll not soon forget their story.