The Daughters of Erietown

Chapter 1

1947

Ada Fetters walked to the kitchen table and set down her laundry basket with the sigh of an expired hope. The morning s conversation with her youngest son grew heavier with each passing hour. I raised that boy to be better than this. I raised him, and I failed.

She walked to the window over the sink and searched for her husband. Wayne was stepping off the tractor, and she could hear him whistling for Sheba. The dog ran to Wayne s side and leapt for the last piece of beef jerky in his hand. Wayne rubbed the dog s head, and both of them turned toward the house with the red sun behind them, two shadows walking into bad news.

She went over to the stove and flipped the chicken pieces sizzling in the skillet, scraping bits of char from the sides. This pan had helped her raise four kids. She had cooked with it every day for more than forty years, and brandished it countless times to bring a shaky peace to the Fetters household.

Larry was the problem. Always had been. And now this.

Wayne pushed open the back door, followed by the tap-tap-tap of Sheba s nails on the hardwood floor. Go see Mommy, he said, chuckling. Go see what she s got for ya. The dog raced across the room and slid to a stop at the stove, her fat tail thumping against Ada s legs.

Sit, Ada said. Sit, girl. She picked up the boiled chicken heart on the stove and popped it into the dog s mouth.

Wayne walked up behind her and kissed her neck. Anything for me?

Supper s almost ready. She wiped her hands on her apron and reached for the two plates they used every night for dinner, her mind full of the changes her husband didn t even know were coming. She d be stacking three plates soon, setting another place. She looked over at Wayne and let out a long, slow breath.

What? he said.

Larry was here today, she said, avoiding his eyes as she set down the plates.

What d he want this time?

Ada almost started to chastise him, as she always did when they

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and a professional-in-residence in the journalism school at Kent State University, her alma mater. She is the author of two memoirs, Life Happens and ...And His Lovely Wife. Schultz lives in Cleveland with her husband, Sherrod Brown, and their rescue dogs Franklin and Walter. They have four children and seven grandchildren.

Connie Schultz s The Daughters of Erietown is a quiet force of a novel. It crept up on me, much the same way that time creeps up on these characters. I was struck by how well Schultz portrays a full life childhood to old age and all the small moments that shape us, for better or for worse. Its ambitious scope will leave readers wanting to curl up with it until they ve finished. Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes

The kind of smart, authentic story that both men and women will find riveting. Don t miss it. The Washington Post

Effortless . . . Too often, novels feature the extravagant trials and tribulations of the wealthy while ignoring the working men and women who live paycheck to paycheck. Not Ms. Schultz. . . . [She] brings authenticity to her writing about working-class families. . . . The Daughters of Erietown could be the daughters of every town. And Ms. Schultz should be proud to be called its mother. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

This is a big, deep, warm, and moving story of unforgettable women who make and shape their families. With the eye and ear of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and the insight and language of a born storyteller, Schultz immerses us in The Daughters of Erietown, from love to loss and back. Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of White Houses

Connie Schultz has long been one of the great chroniclers of the American Dream, telling the true stories of everyday men and women with compassion, heart, wit, and wisdom. Her powerful debut novel contains all that, plus the essential magic that only fiction can provide. Schultz offers up a deep exploration of the inner lives of one family. Their hopes, desires, and heartaches blaze forth on every page. J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Saints for All Occasions

A sweeping, heartfelt tale . . . Schultz enlivens the narrative with sharp cultural commentary