From the bestselling author of Mrs. Poe and Twain’s End comes a “ poignant, beautifully rendered story of two sisters who find the courage to reclaim their bond after years of misunderstandings and heartbreak” (Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author) during the Great Depression. 1934. Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family’s Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, was infected by the infamous “sleeping sickness” devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June: blonde and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And June has a coveted job, too, as one of “the Bettys,” the perky recipe developers who populate the famous Betty Crocker test kitchen. But these gilded trappings hide sorrows: she has borne no children. And the man she loves more than anything belongs to Ruth. When the two sisters reluctantly reunite after a long estrangement, June’s bitterness about her sister’s betrayal sets into motion a confrontation that’s been years in the making. And their mother, Dorothy, who’s brought the two of them together, has her own dark secrets, which might blow up the fragile peace she hopes to restore between her daughters. An emotional journey of redemption, inner strength, and the ties that bind families together, for better or worse, The Sisters of Summit Avenue is a moving and heartfelt tribute to mothers, daughters, and sisters everywhere. "A captivating depression-era tale of two sisters locked into a lifelong rivalry that will equal parts surprise and delight you. This is the sibling story I never knew I needed."--Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of WATER FOR ELEPHANTS and AT THE WATER'S EDGE "A gripping story of two complex sisters, bound by anger, resentment, and love... keeps the pages turning."--Martha Hall Kelly, New York Times bestselling author of LILAC GIRLS and LOST ROSES "A story of gripping emotional power. Riveting and suspenseful, the novel builds to a devastating conclusion that made me return to the beginning to start over, because I wasn't ready to leave Cullen's vivid fictional world."--Lauren Belfer, New York Times bestselling author of AND AFTER THE FIRE and CITY OF LIGHT. "In THE SISTERS OF SUMMIT AVENUE, Lynn Cullen has given us a truly lovely gift; a fascinating, complex study of the ties that bind mothers, sisters and daughters. The Depression-era setting is vividly captured; the behind-the-scenes glimpses into the world of advertising, in the form of Betty Crocker, fascinating. But it's the poignant, beautifully rendered story of two sisters who find the courage to reclaim their bond after years of misunderstandings and heartbreak that you will remember, and cherish."--Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of THE SWANS OF FIFTH AVENUE Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and is the bestselling author of The Sisters of Summit Avenue , Twain’s End , and Mrs. Poe, which was named an NPR 2013 Great Read and an Indie Next List selection. She lives in Atlanta. The Sisters of Summit Avenue ONE Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1934 June had been working for Betty Crocker for two of her thirty-two years. Yet each morning when she arrived at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange Building with its wheat sheaves carved around the door and its imposing wall of elevators, and she clicked across the cavernous green marble lobby in her chunky-heeled nurse’s shoes, her purse swinging on her arm above her gloves and the skirt of her white uniform swishing against her hosiery, she felt as if she were on the verge of discovery. Of what, she didn’t know. As she rode up in the elevator thick with the smell of brass polish, she imagined herself to be like the heavy brown cicada larvae that lumbered up the trunks of the trees of her Summit Avenue estate in St. Paul. Her body was swelling, her too-tight shell was splitting, and her wings were unfurling to fly her up to the treetops—or in her case, to the ninth floor—where she might sing, or soar . . . or fall down to the ground to buzz clumsily on her back. None of the other women in the Betty Crocker test kitchen would guess her fear of failure; at least she hoped not. All twenty-one of them had an area of expertise. Karen from Hastings, Nebraska, was the go-to girl on naming foods; “Pigs in Blankets” were “Wiener Turnovers” until she came along. Carolyn of Angola, Indiana, was the Queen of Stretching a Dime, a handy skill when most people had so few of them these days. Eager little Darlene from Endeavor, Wisconsin, whose hunger for more than Bundt cakes was belied by her wholesome, well-scrubbed face, was their expert on pleasing men, proof that you should never judge a book by the cover. June’s role around the Crocker kitchen was to be the Sophisticated One. The other girls called upon her to create menus for “smart luncheons” and “elegant suppers,