A Season in Queens

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.