Synopsis: Zorrie was born in Indiana but when her parents die, it falls to her only living relative, an aunt to finish raising her and when the aunt passes, Zorrie is once again orphaned and must look for work. It is the time of the Depression and work is hard to find. She drifts west to Illinois and ends up getting a job painting clock faces. What Zorrie and the other women at the factory don’t know is that the radium-filled paint will decades later leave many of them sick or dead from cancer. Fortunately, Zorrie does not stay in that job long as she becomes homesick and moves back to Indiana settling in a small town in the same county she was born. There she finds a community that respects and supports her and eventually she marries a farmer, Harold. Set against the backdrop of 20th century Indiana, we follow the highs and lows of Zorrie’s life.
My thoughts: Zorrie was a likeable character and while her life wasn’t horrible, it wasn’t the easiest or happiest either and I found her to be a lonely person at times. This is not a long novel (under 200 pages) but the author managed to packed a lot into it. I definitely got Kent Haruf vibes from his novel “Our Souls at Night” when I read the last quarter of this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing a free copy of this book to me in exchange for an honest review.
3/5 stars
indydriven 
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