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A Novel
by Juliette Fay
Set against the turbulent backdrop of American Vaudeville, four sisters embark on an unexpected adventure—and a last-ditch effort to save their family.
In 1919, the Turner sisters and their parents are barely scraping by. Their father is a low-paid boot-stitcher in Johnson City, New York, and the family is always one paycheck away from eviction. When their father's hand is crushed and he can no longer work, their irrepressible mother decides that the vaudeville stage is their best—and only—chance for survival.
Traveling by train from town to town, teenagers Gert, Winnie, and Kit, and recent widow Nell soon find a new kind of freedom in the company of performers who are as diverse as their acts. There is a seamier side to the business, however, and the young women face dangers and turns of fate they never could have anticipated. Heartwarming and surprising, The Tumbling Turner Sisters is ultimately a story of awakening—to unexpected possibilities, to love and heartbreak, and to the dawn of a new American era.
"With humor, affection, ambition, and a talent for weaving in history, Fay brings the world of 1910s vaudeville vividly to life through the travails of the tenacious Turner family. " - Publishers Weekly
"Readers will applaud these hardworking sisters. Fay's (Shelter Me) charming fourth novel pulls back the curtains to reveal the colorful lives in vaudeville." - Library Journal
"Fay's gentle humor and risk-averse approach don't do justice to her rollicking subject matter." - Kirkus Reviews
"This novel of love, dreams, and the everlasting strength of family perfectly encapsulates the social mores and pressures of the early twentieth century. The Turner sisters dare to dream big--don't miss this page turner!" - Sara Gruen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants
"Filled with energetic prose and colorful characters—you won't soon forget the Turner girls!" - Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train
"Book clubs are sure to fall for The Tumbling Turner Sisters. Through this band of charming young women—and their stage mother, of course—Juliette Fay delivers the history, mystery, and prejudice of vaudeville in a story that is ultimately about the possibility of practice making something perfect (or perfect enough, anyway), the benefits of humor and ambition, and the redemptive power of love." - Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Race for Paris
"Lovable, memorable characters propel this heartwarming story, which makes you laugh while it makes you think, then sticks with you long after the last vibrant page is savored." - Lynn Cullen, bestselling author of Twain's End and Mrs. Poe
"The Turner sisters come tumbling out of this terrific story, full of life, passion and trouble. Forced into a life in vaudeville, the four young girls and their mother push the boundaries of propriety to achieve their dreams in a world that doesn't often allow women to have dreams ... A great piece of historical fiction that rings true one hundred years later." - B.A. Shapiro, NYT bestselling author of The Muralist and The Art Forger
"Evoking the entrepreneurial, madcap era of vaudeville, Juliette Fay immerses us in the trials, joys, and dangers of three young women, whose bid for success is as uproarious and heartbreaking as the time in which they lived." - C.W. Gortner, bestselling author of Mademoiselle Chanel
"Juliette Fay's novel of sisters forced by their ultimate stage mother into this show business world of fanciful facade hiding cutthroat innards reveals America—from Jim Crow laws to skirting prohibition. Like Little Women, these four sisters, facing loss and poverty, reveal a family with an unbreakable core of fortitude and love." - Randy Susan Meyers, bestselling author of Accidents of Marriage
This information about The Tumbling Turner Sisters was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Juliette Fay is the award-winning author of The Tumbling Turner Sisters, The Shortest Way Home, Deep Down True, and Shelter Me. She received a bachelor's degree from Boston College and a master's degree from Harvard University. Juliette lives in Massachusetts with her husband and four children. Her website is JulietteFay.com.
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