The Girl from Tomorrow's Town

By Naomi Musch

Description:

After being sent away on an orphan train and surviving years of hardship, nineteen year old Lily Mae Dodge is finally heading east, determined to find the mother she lost and a life shaped by hope rather than fear.

On the journey she meets Francis Basnett, a kindhearted circus roustabout barred from the Great War by his failing vision and concealing deeper unworthiness behind a pair of dark glasses. Though branded a coward by strangers, Francis longs to prove his courage. Drawn to Lily's quiet resilience, he offers friendship and refuge in the dazzling world of the traveling Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, as she begins her search.

There, amid the sawdust and spangles, Lily allows her guarded heart to soften. But when a runaway train slams into the circus cars in the dead of night—igniting a catastrophic fire—her fragile new beginning collapses. Dozens are dead, hundreds injured. . .and Francis is missing.

Haunted by old wounds and confronted with devastating loss, Lily must decide whether fear will define her future or whether she will trust God to be her refuge and strength.

Book Takeaway:

True courage and strength are gained when Lily Mae releases her fears to God--even when hope seems lost.

Why the author wrote this book:

So much was going on in our world in 1918. In discovering the history surrounding the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train crash that took place that year, I was enthralled with the possibilities of telling the story through the eyes of characters who could bring the dazzling world of the circus and the time period to life.