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by Cheryl Lawson (Author)
This is the journey of four sisters who, as children, asked "Are we there yet?" each summer as they sweated and squabbled their way to Wells Beach, Maine, in the back seat of the family's '59 Impala. Like Seinfeld, theirs is a story about "nothing" yet a story about everything that shaped women of their generations. Good-naturedly dubbing themselves the "Stunning Smith Sisters", they shared iconic childhood adventures in Connecticut and teen-age summers in Maine so magical that they never wanted to leave. Filled with moments of sweet nostalgia, it's also a story of divisive family secrets with which each sister must learn to cope in her own way.
Spanning different generations, the sisters have misunderstandings that put a strain on their relationships. They come of age when abortion was illegal, when a woman couldn't get a credit card without a husband to co-sign, when sexual harassment was thought of as "a joke". They find their voices during the Civil Rights movement, the Beatles, and Vietnam. The sisters have loved and been betrayed, faced down cancer and epilepsy, fallen and gotten back up, cried a bit and laughed a lot. They've traveled the world, made first tracks in the snow, and spent carefree summer days "upta camp".
It hasn't always been easy; theirs has been a bumpy road trip through life. A strong sense of place impacts each of their stories. Each sister must find her own "home", a place of safety and security which wasn't always present in childhood. They must learn to be resilient in the face of the unexpected. They must grapple with questions of jealousy, of truth, of forgiveness. Can they maintain their sisterly bond in spite of their differences and divergent futures?
