In All Good Faith

A Novel

by Liza Nash Taylor

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org

*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Pub Date Aug 10 2021 | Archive Date Sep 23 2021

Blackstone Publishing

Historical Fiction

Talking about this book? Use #InAllGoodFaith #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!

Description

In the summer of 1932, Americans are coming to realize that the financial crash of 1929 was only the beginning of hard times. May Marshall Craig has returned from Paris to settle at her family home in rural Keswick, Virginia. As a young mother married to her childhood sweetheart, Byrd, she struggles to keep her family farm and market afloat through the economic downturn of the Great Depression. When necessity and loss force Byrd to take a job out of town, May finds herself juggling her marriage with a tempting opportunity to revamp the family business to adapt to changing times.

In a cold-water West End Boston tenement the fractured Sykes family scrapes by on an itinerant mechanic’s wages and home sewing. Having recently lost her mother, sixteen-year-old Dorrit Sykes questions the religious doctrine she was raised in. Dorrit is reclusive, held back by the anxiety attacks that have plagued her since childhood. Attempting to understand what limits her, she seeks inspiration in Nancy Drew mysteries and finds solace at the Boston Public Library, writing fairy stories for children. The library holds answers to both Dorrit’s exploration of faith and her quest to understand and manage her anxiety.

When Dorrit accompanies her father to Washington, DC, in the summer of 1932 to camp out and march with twenty thousand veterans intending to petition President Hoover for early payment of war bonuses, she begins an odyssey that will both traumatize and strengthen her. Along the way she redefines her faith, learning both self-sufficiency and how to accept help.

Dorrit and May’s lives intersect, and their fates will intertwine in ways that neither could have imagined or expected. Set against a backdrop of true historical events, In All Good Faith tells a story of two women’s unlikely success during the Great Depression.

A Note From the Publisher

Liza Nash Taylor, the author of Etiquette for Runaways, was a 2018 Hawthornden International Fellow and received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. The 2016 winner of the San Miguel Writer’s Conference Fiction Prize, her work has appeared in Microchondria II, Gargoyle Magazine, and Deep South, amongst others. A native Virginian, she lives in Keswick with her husband and dogs.

Liza Nash Taylor, the author of Etiquette for Runaways, was a 2018 Hawthornden International Fellow and received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. The 2016 winner of the San Miguel Writer’s...

Read More Read More

A Note From the Publisher

Liza Nash Taylor, the author of Etiquette for Runaways, was a 2018 Hawthornden International Fellow and received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. The 2016 winner of the San Miguel Writer’s Conference Fiction Prize, her work has appeared in Microchondria II, Gargoyle Magazine, and Deep South, amongst others. A native Virginian, she lives in Keswick with her husband and dogs.

Advance Praise

“In All Good Faith is a powerful novel infused with the perseverance and power of its women. Expertly exploring a little known piece of history, Liza Nash Taylor welcomes us into the lives of her characters in a dazzling display of prose and heart. While revealing the profound power of story and fairy tales to help navigate our lives, Taylor introduces us to two women whose lives will collide in ways they could never expect. Unforgettable, fascinating, and gripping, In All Good Faith is do-not-miss historical fiction.”

-Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis

“Liza Nash Taylor’s Depression-era novel, In All Good Faith is a beautifully written story about the power of perseverance and resiliency in the hardest of times. Meticulously researched with rich detail and strong female characters that you root for, I loved this story and know it will delight Taylor’s current fans and is sure to gain her many more.”

-Jane Healey, bestselling author of The Beantown Girls and The Secret Stealers

“Liza Nash Taylor is a writer of immense talent. She gives life not only to her characters, but to an entire era of American culture. In All Good Faith is a towering achievement.”

-Clint McCown, author of ten books and twice winner of the American Fiction Prize

“There are many paths to faith, and just a many which lead in the opposite direction. In All Good Faith, in a wonderfully rendered historical context, tracks a supremely recognizable human journey, transforming from the solitary to a story of two women earning tenaciousness and gratitude, and fending off the memory of heartbreak.”

-Brian Leung, author of Ivy vs. Dogg and the forthcoming All I Should Not Tell

“In All Good Faith takes a poignant and heartwarming look at the Great Depression through the eyes of two women fighting for survival. Written with a delicacy that gives the reader a realistic glimpse of the hardships, it is also told with such beauty and soul that one can’t help but like it immensely. A story of friendship, struggle, family, and love, with a sweeping and vital historical backdrop, this book will have the reader eagerly awaiting the next story from Taylor.”

-Camille Di Maio, bestselling author of The Memory of Us

“An uplifting novel about the Depression! With their families never far from ruin, May Craig and Dorrit Sykes form a friendship that bolsters their resilience, ingenuity, and gumption. Liza Nash Taylor’s unforgettable novel captures two women both mired in and ahead of their time.”

-Mary Kay Zuravleff, author of Man Alive!