City of Light

by Lauren Belfer

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Set in the spring of 1901, as the Pan-American Exposition seems to promise Buffalo, New York, a bright future, Louisa Barrett, the spinster headmistress of a fashionable girls' school, narrates our story. What Louisa is most concerned about, is her 9-year-old goddaughter, Grace Sinclair, who has grown increasingly unstable since her mother's sudden death. Meanwhile, Grace's father is heading up Buffalo's hydroelectric power plans with dangerous zeal--much to the chagrin of local conservationists who oppose any exploitation of Niagara Falls. Mama Bear can only give the teeniest idea of Belfer's complex story, in which we see a disquieting world where nothing is what it seems. As Louisa battles against what seems to be the end of all she loves, her past threatens to undermine her carefully guarded secret. In her first novel, Belfer makes us feel the rush of the water, the thrill of electric light, the snap and crackle of social tension, and--poor Louisa--the despair of tragic inevitability.

Mama Bear puts this one on the staff pick shelf a lot! Bear claw up and very affirmative growl.