The author of BEAUTIFUL RUINS is back with another superb novel. THE COLD MILLIONS is a riveting tale of two orphaned, train-hopping brothers, Gig and Rye Dolan, who are swept up in the free speech riots of 1909-1910 in Spokane, WA—a significant but often forgotten time in America's history when hundreds of unionists, transient workers and socialists protesting unfair pay and working conditions were assaulted and imprisoned. In one of my favorite passages in the novel, Rye is reading WAR AND PEACE and realizes his own life is part of an epic story. What seem like chance events and encounters with remarkable people—including Ursula the Great, a vaudeville singer who performs with a cougar, and the feminist activist Elizabeth Gurly Flynn—are all linked to a defining moment. Like Tolstoy's masterpiece, THE COLD MILLIONS is both timely and timeless—bringing to life a transformative era in a nation's past with intimate and kaleidoscopic detail, mixing fictional and real-life characters. This entertaining, enlightening, inspiring, and very relevant novel will give you a new and vital perspective on both the civil rights movement and today's #BlackLivesMatter protests. -Alyssa
