The Photograph

As a nation of young soldiers marches off to war, two women left behind will embrace a final keepsake, a profound reminder of the moment before their lives changed forever—its bittersweet images telling the story of an innocence lost, of a love just beginning, and of a family that may never be whole again. . . .

THE PHOTOGRAPH

In her highly acclaimed hardcover debut, The Wedding Dress, Virginia Ellis earned a place among the new stars of women’s fiction with her unforgettable portrait of sisters mending their dreams from the tattered remains of the Civil War. Now she triumphs once again in this stirring new novel of hope and the enduring spirit of those bound by the passions of the heart.

For Maddy Marshall, it was a time of jitterbug contests and drugstore sodas. Then on her seventeenth birthday, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Suddenly all the boys she grew up with, including her fiancé, ran off to enlist, ready to defend their country. It was all incredibly romantic to Maddy. Until the fateful night before her brother Davey shipped out, the night she danced with dreamy Lieutenant Tull-Martin, the night of the photograph—when her world fell apart.

Only Davey’s frail wife, Ruth, will discover what happened, helping Maddy to hide her grave secret and its undeniable consequences. Together these sisters of the heart maintain a deception that, like the shifting reflections of a picture, becomes a beacon of possibility to be cherished until fate brings their men home.

Written with warmth and grace, The Photograph is a moving celebration of the women who lived, loved, and came of age in a time of overwhelming heartbreak.