<b>"A buoyant tale about the path to acceptance and joy--beginning, like all journeys, with one brave step."--<i>People</i><br /><br />"The best-selling novelist has done a masterful job of depicting the circumstances of a generation of women we seldom think about: the mothers, sisters, wives and fiances of men lost in World War I, whose job it was to remember those lost but not forgotten."--Associated Press<br /><br />A BEST BOOK OF 2019 with The New York Public Library | <i>USA TODAY</i> | <i>Real Simple</i> | <i>Good Housekeeping </i>| <i>Chicago Sun Time</i> | <i>TIME</i> | <i>PopSugar</i> | <i>The New York Post</i> | <i>Parade</i></b><br /><br />1932. After the Great War took both her beloved brother and her fiancé, Violet Speedwell has become a "surplus woman," one of a generation doomed to a life of spinsterhood after the war killed so many young men. Yet Violet cannot reconcile herself to a life spent caring for her grieving, embittered mother. After countless meals of boiled eggs and dry toast, she saves enough to move out of her mother&apos;s place and into the town of Winchester, home to one of England&apos;s grandest cathedrals. There, Violet is drawn into a society of broderers--women who embroider kneelers for the Cathedral, carrying on a centuries-long tradition of bringing comfort to worshippers. <br /><br />Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren&apos;t expected to grow. Told in Chevalier&apos;s glorious prose, <i>A Single Thread</i> is a timeless story of friendship, love, and a woman crafting her own life.