"One of the finest novels I've read . . . .a fiercely intelligent look at childhood, marriage, families, the 1960s, the Cold War and the fear and isolation that are part of the human condition…. it is not only beautifully written…. it is equally beautiful in its conception, its compassion, its wisdom, even in its anger and pain. Don't miss it."  - Patrick Anderson, Washington Post Book World The optimism of the early sixties, infused with the...

The Orange County, California, that the Becker brothers knew as boys is no more-unrecognizably altered since the afternoon in 1954 when Nick, Clay, David, and Andy rumbled with the lowlife Vonns, while five-year-old Janelle Vonn watched from the sidelines. The new decade has ushered in the era of Johnson, hippies, John Birchers, and LSD. Clay becomes a casualty of a far-off jungle war. Nick becomes a cop, Andy a reporter, David a minister. And a terrible...

In 1961, Margo Hightower, becoming the assistant to a society photographer, is thrown headfirst into the glamorous Jet Set world she so covets where she becomes friends with heiress and rising fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer, but when the lines between work and play blur, the golden life she desires slips from her grasp.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian reflects on her 42-year marriage with Dick Goodwin, one the shining stars of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier and the journey of going through the letters, diaries, documents and memorabilia he saved over the years.