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Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh

Baker Towers is set in the years after World War II in Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town full of ethnic neighborhoods, churches, festivals, and close-knit families. The mounds of coal dirt are signs of busy mines and booming times and are called Baker Towers. Set in this era of change are the fortunes of the Novak family and their five children. Georgie, the oldest, served in the Navy during the war and dreams of a life oustide Bakerton, Dorothy moves to Washington DC and has trouble adapting, Joyce is perhaps the smartest child in town, Sandy is a boy who knows how to use his looks and charm to get what he wants, and Lucy is the baby at the beginning of the novel. Jennifer Haigh follows the trajectories of their lives and this industrial era town to show the growth and change in the country as a whole. Baker Towers has received positive reviews with the Denver Post saying, "Baker Towers isn't perfect, but it sure is close."