Award Winning Author Ellen Baker at the Rockland Library Thursday May 3rd

Award Winning Author Ellen Baker at the Rockland Library Thursday May 3rd
Editor: David Mills


ROCKLAND, ME - On Thursday May 3 at 6:30 PM in the Friends Community Room of the Rockland Public Library Award-winning Author Ellen Baker, who charmed readers with her debut novel Keeping the House four years ago, returns with I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW THIS (Random House), a novel about the searing power of war, memory, friendship and family.

In January 1944, Grace Anderson, Lena Maki, and Lena’s mother, Violet, have joined the growing ranks of women working for the war effort. Though they find satisfaction in their jobs at a Wisconsin shipyard, it isn’t enough to distract them from the anxieties of wartime, or their fears for the men they love: Lena’s twin brother, Derrick, and Grace’s high school sweetheart, Alex. When shattering news arrives from the front, the lives of the three women are pitched into turmoil. As one is pushed to the brink of madness, the others are forced into choices they couldn’t have imagined—and their lives will never be the same.
     

More than five decades later, Violet’s great-granddaughter, Julia, returns to the small farmhouse where Violet and Lena once lived. Listless from her own recent tragedy, Julia begins to uncover the dark secrets that shattered her family, eventually learning that redemption—and love—can be found in the most unexpected places.

I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW THIS is a riveting story of loyalties held and sacred bonds broken; crushing loss and enduring dreams; and what it takes—and what it means—to find the way home.
Books will be available at the event for purchase and signing, courtesy of The Reading Corner Bookshop.

ELLEN BAKER has worked as a costumed living history interpreter, a curator of a World War II museum, and as a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. Her previous novel, Keeping the House, won the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction and was named one of the Chicago Tribune’s favorite books of the year.  She lives in Minnesota.

“Ellen Baker's novel is large in the best sense; large in its generous spirit, and its gallery of vivid, memorable characters.  It possesses, as well, an abundance of intelligence, and great shrewdness in its pure, story-telling appeal.  This novel has a naturalness and finesse that are truly rare.”
— Richard Ford

“What a rich offering this is! Ellen Baker gives us characters who are so real, so recognizable, so likable, in spite of (or perhaps because of) their problems and secrets and frustrations and missteps…. I loved reading this powerful and poignant book, which, though it acknowledges pain, regret and remorse, ultimately is a celebration of life.” - Elizabeth Berg, author of Once Upon a Time There Was You and Open House.