The novel has an unusual construction, weaving in letters, reports and conventional chapters focussing on different points of view. The body is exhumed, and, through her mother, the spirit of Zona rejoins her community. Despite considerable difficulties, they succeed in securing an inquest. But Zona’s mother, and Lucy, have doubts. Her husband, a respected man, arranges a swift burial. Less than a year later, Zona is married, and dead. To do so, she eschews her corsets: a move that embarrasses her family in a way that might be comparable to today’s reaction to a grandmother deciding to go shopping topless. Meanwhile, Mary Jane, her mother, frustrated by a daydreaming, failed-inventor husband, decides to become a spirit medium. It’s clear that Zona would never have parted with baby Elizabeth, had it not been for the ‘sin’ of being unmarried. The letter is typed by Zona’s friend, wannabe journalist and daring bicyclist Lucy. 1896, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, USA, and Zona Heaster writes to the child she gave up for adoption.
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