Woman Enters Left

"A woman sets out on a cross-country road trip, unknowingly tracing in reverse the path her mother traveled thirty years before. 'Tender, touching, original, and rich with delicious period detail of Hollywood's heyday--buckle up, because you'll definitely want to go on a road trip after reading this delightful book!'--Hazel Gaynor, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Came Home. In the 1950s, movie star Louise Wilde is caught between an unfulfilling acting career and a shaky marriage when she receives an out-of-the-blue phone call: she has inherited the estate of Florence 'Florrie' Daniels, a Hollywood screenwriter she barely recalls meeting. Among Florrie's possessions are several unproduced screenplays, personal journals, and--inexplicably--old photographs of Louise's mother, Ethel. On an impulse, Louise leaves a film shoot in Las Vegas and sets off for her father's house on the East Coast, hoping for answers about the curious inheritance and, perhaps, about her own troubled marriage. Nearly thirty years earlier, Florrie takes off on an adventure of her own, driving her Model T westward from New Jersey in pursuit of broader horizons. She has the promise of a Hollywood job and, in the passenger seat, Ethel, her best friend since childhood. Florrie will do anything for Ethel, who is desperate to reach Nevada in time to reconcile with her husband and reunite with her daughter. Ethel fears the loss of her marriage; Florrie, with long-held secrets confided only in her journal, fears its survival. In parallel tales, the three women--Louise, Florrie, Ethel--discover that not all journeys follow a map. As they rediscover their carefree selves on the road, they learn that sometimes the paths we follow are shaped more by our traveling companions than by our destinations"--

"A woman in the 1950s sets out on a road trip from LA to New Jersey, unknowingly tracing in reverse the path her mother traveled thirty years prior on her way to reclaim a lost love. 1926: Two friends, Ethel Wild and Florrie Daniels, embark on a cross-country adventure in Florrie's Model T. They head west from New Jersey, each with an important destination: Florrie is moving to Hollywood in hopes of becoming a screenwriter, while Ethel is trying to catch up to her husband in Nevada before his residency period is complete and he's able to start divorce proceedings. 1952: Movie star Louise Wilde is summoned to an apartment in Hollywood, where she learns she's inherited screenwriter Florence Daniels's entire estate. The two barely knew each other, and she's baffled; her confusion only grows when she discovers a cache of old photographs of Ms. Daniels with her mother, who died when Louise was six. She drives east to her father's house in New Jersey, hoping he can provide some answers to the mystery, and hoping, too, that the time away will give her a chance to decide what to do about her own failing marriage to a war correspondent home from Korea and fighting his PTSD"--