A Woman's Place: A Novel

Lynn Austin takes you into the lives of four very different women living in Michigan during World War II. Virginia, or 'Ginny,' as she prefers to be called, is a wife and mother who is afraid her husband is having an affair. Jean is a farm girl who dreams of going to college with her twin brother Johnny. Rosa is an outspoken Italian who goes to live with her in-laws in their religious household when her new husband goes to war. Helen is an elderly, unmarried schoolteacher with an interesting past that has made her indiscriminately hate the Germans. When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurs in December 1941, these four women decide to help the war effort and take jobs at a factory, where they work together and become friends. As World War II goes on, the women help each other deal with the problems in their lives and in their pre-civil rights society.

Austin gives each of these four women different personalities and obstacles to overcome. We see them grow stronger as they learn more about themselves and how to survive in a time when war has thrown their normal lives into upheaval. Austin alternates between the four women as the focus of each chapter in the book. This lets us get more invested with the characters and empathize with what befalls them-both good and bad-as they learn that "A Woman's Place' is no longer confined to the home.