<div>Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder.<br /> <br /> Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's<i>An American Tragedy,</i>Jennifer Donnelly's astonishing debut novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.<br /> <br /> <i>Includes a reader's guide and an interview with the author.</i><br /></div>