The Girl from Tomorrow’s Town

A young woman’s search for her long-lost mother animates this energetic early-20th-century historical from Musch (Season of My Enemy). At nine, with her father dead and her depressed mother unable to care for her, Lily Mae Dodge was sent from Indiana to an orphanage in Wyoming. Now an adult, she’s eager to reconnect with her mom and takes a train east, hoping that with God’s help she’ll find her hometown, though she can’t remember its name. En route she meets handsome Francis Basnett, who’s enchanted by Lily’s enterprising spirit, but worries about falling in love due to a debilitating eye condition that he fears would make a potential wife into his caretaker. Still, sparks fly and he convinces Lily to join him in working behind the scenes for the real-life Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus (Lily as a seamstress, Francis as a laborer doing ground work), in hopes they’ll find her hometown in their travels. Soon, however, a disastrous train crash upends their plans, setting the pair on a path they never expected. Musch skillfully interweaves the romance plot and Lily’s resonant search for home with plenty of action. It’s a powerful story of trusting God and finding hope in even the most difficult circumstances. (June)