Ten-year-old Helen and her summer guardian Flora are isolated together in Helens decaying family house while her father is doing secret war work in Oak Ridge during the final months of World War II At three Helen lost her mother and the beloved grandmother who raised her has just died A fiercely imaginative child Helen is desperate to keep her house intact with all its ghosts and stories Flora her late mothers twenty-two-year old first cousin who cries at the drop of a hat is ardently determined to do her best for Helen Their relationship and its fallout played against a backdrop of a lost America will haunt Helen for the rest of her lifeThis darkly beautiful novel about a child and a caretaker in isolation evokes shades of The Turn of the Screwand also harks back to Godwins memorable novel of growing up The Finishing School With its house on top of a mountain and a child who may be a bomb that will one day go off Flora tells a story of love regret and the things we cant undo It will stay with readers long after the last page is turned.
