These Empty Places

Two women find friendship and second chances on the shores of a now-barren North Carolina lake in this moving historical from Thomas (These Blue Mountains). In 1915 Claire Roth and her husband build an impressive home on the shores of Lake Toxaway, N.C., but soon afterward, the dam that formed the lake bursts and all the water rushes downriver. Fast-forward to 1930: the Great Depression has taken hold and Claire, now widowed, decides to build a library to employ out-of-work townspeople and revive the bustling town. To get the project off the ground, she hires Lena Hawkins, a lonely ex-socialite who’s new in town and whose husband lost it all in the stock market crash. As the pair get to work, several investors, attracted by the project, consider rebuilding the dam and restoring the lake. But Claire’s afraid to dream of the lake’s revival, and things get more complicated when she’s romantically pursued by a potential investor, while Lena’s marriage is strained by her husband’s money-making schemes. Both women look to God as they weigh how far they’ll go to hold onto their pasts while building a new future for the town and themselves. Thomas vividly portrays the restlessness of small-town life during the Depression, but the friendship between Claire and Lena—who connect over books despite their age difference—is the story’s beating heart. Readers will be swept up. (May)