A Season in Queens — Joanne Dryansky

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.