Soldiers wounded in World War II return home in this “moving read full of compassion and resilience” (Tatiana de Rosnay, New York Times–bestselling author).
1946. In Cambria Heights—an outlying working-class enclave of New York City—the people, having lived through years of calamitous losses and fears, are ready to revive the modestly idyllic life of their cherished little neighborhood. But their peace is imperiled . . .
GIs are returning, and though their physical wounds may be healed, their emotional wounds fester. As the community grapples with a “communist threat” that forebodes another war, the worst polio epidemic in American history threatens to spread. And when an African American air ace and war hero looks for a place to call home, his very presence unearths the latent racism of his newfound neighbors.
During this turbulent time, sixteen-year-old Erin Burke enters into a relationship with a disturbed veteran suffering from shellshock. When his sexual abuse leads to a botched, illegal abortion, Erin marries her memory to her imagination to portray A Season in Queens that will change her life forever.
Joanne and Gerry Dryansky grew up together in Queens, New York, a permanent couple since their first date when she was 14 and he 15. During most of their lives in Paris, rearing a son and daughter, they collaborated in Gerry’s role as foreign correspondent and magazine writer for several noted American publications. They finally left Condé Nast behind to devote themselves to fiction and screenplays, combining Joanne’s innate perceptivity and Gerry’s analytical attitude. They say it’s as if they’ve shared their genes to bring to life a singular person who is Joanne and Gerry. Both focused their education on the English language, Joanne at Queens College. After Gerry’s being graduated from Princeton Summa Cum Laude, Joanne tutored poor children while Gerry earned a master’s from Harvard— before they “escaped” academia, for the wider world of journalism and for co-authoring novels and numerous optioned screenplays.