Page-turning Americana

The social norms, pop culture, and landmark events of the past often provide fodder for novelists. These novels highlight four different decades in recent history.

Susie Finkbeiner takes readers back to 1952 in The All-American (Revell 2023), a simpler time when traditional values were the norm. Sisters Bertha and Flossie Harding are opposites. Bertha is obsessed with baseball and dreams of someday playing in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Flossie, on the other hand, loves to read and has trouble making friends. When their father is falsely accused of being a member of the Communist Party, the family moves to a new city to escape harassment. Moored by their mother’s strong Christian faith, the family faces ­challenges and tragedy with grace. (Due out July 11.)

The turbulent 1970s brought changes like women’s liberation, casual sex, and broken families. Rachel Hauck’s The Best Summer of Our Lives (Bethany House 2023), set in 1977, explores these themes. Best friends since kindergarten—Summer, Spring, Autumn, and Snow—anticipate an epic summer before starting college together. But a prank gone bad results in a court order requiring them to work all summer as camp counselors in remote Oklahoma. The friends act more like “frenemies” much of the time. Secrets, fears, bitterness, jealousy, and selfishness drive the girls apart. There’s a lack of Christian influence—aside from a mysterious figure called the Preacher—but the hopeful ending lifts the melancholy plot.

A Shadow in Moscow (Harper Muse 2023) by Katherine Reay is a taut, dual-timeline, Cold War–era espionage novel. After World War II, Austrian Ingrid Bauer moves to Moscow with her new Russian husband. Belatedly, she realizes he works for the KGB. Trapped in a loveless marriage and a suffocating country, she’s determined to improve the world for her baby daughter by supplying Britain’s MI6 with valuable Soviet secrets. Fast forward to 1980: Russian citizen Anya Kadinova graduates from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Back home she becomes increasingly disillusioned by the Soviets’ totalitarian rule. Anya contacts the CIA and begins her career as a spy. But she becomes careless and places her family in jeopardy.

It’s the first months of 1990 in Erin Bartels’ Everything Is Just Beginning (Revell 2023). The Cold War is ending and optimism’s in the air, but not for struggling musician Michael Sullivan. He lives in a crummy trailer with his no-good uncle, and he just got ousted from his rock band. His outlook changes when he meets music legends Deb and Dusty Wheeler. He and their daughter Natalie become fast friends and start writing music together. The family’s care and Christian faith teach Michael about forgiveness. His self-­deprecating humor and Natalie’s can-do attitude form a likable duo. Includes fun cameos of legendary musicians.