Between Before and After, by award-winning author Maureen McQuerry, explores the impact of the Spanish Influenza pandemic on a young woman and her family already rocked by secrets, as seen through the eyes of two young adults told in dual narratives between 1918 New York City and 1955 San Jose, California. Fourteen-year-old Molly worries about school, friends, and her parents failed marriage, but mostly about her mothers growing depression. Molly knows her mother is nursing a carefully kept secret. A writer with an obsession for other peoples life stories, Elaine Donnelly is the poster child of repressed emotions. Molly spends her California summer alternately watching out for her little brother, Angus, and tip-toeing around her mothers raw feelings. Molly needs her mother more than ever, but Elaine shuts herself off from real human connections and buries herself in the lives and deaths of the strangers she writes about. When Uncle Stephen is pressed into the limelight because of miraculously curing a young man, Elaine can no longer hide behind other peoples stories. And as Molly digs into her mothers past, she finds a secret hidden in her mothers dresser that may be the key to unlocking a family mystery dating to 1918 New York—a secret that could destroy or save their future. Between Before and After by award-winning poet, novelist, and teacher Maureen McQuerry is perfect for fans of Ruta Sepetys and Laurie Halse Anderson.
