Commonwealth Avenue: A Novel
by By Nevins, Linda
Category: Fiction , General

An extraordinary diary has been hidden for decades in a one-hundred-year-old mansion on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Augusta Hillyard began that diary on her wedding night in 1881. Over the years, she recorded the most intimate details of her life of comfort and privilege as well as the declining fortunes that ultimately threaten to destroy her family.As the story opens, Augusta's great-granddaughter, Zoe Hillyard, a Hollywood production designer, reluctantly returns to Boston after a long absence. Excerpts from the diary are interwoven with Zoe's own story until, in an unexpected and dramatic climax, Zoe herself discovers the hidden cache of Augusta's writings. The women's goals merge as the secrets of Augusta's past become the means by which Zoe rescues not only the Hillyard family but her own happiness as well.