Press

Praise for Unmentionables

“Immensely entertaining and illuminating . . . Exceptionally readable and highly recommended.”

—Library Journal, Starred Review

“Engaging first work from a writer of evident ability.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Marian Elliot Adams’…tale is contagiously enthusiastic.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Unmentionables is a sweeping and memorable story of struggle and suffrage, love and redemption . . . Loewenstein has skillfully woven a story and a cast of characters that will remain in the memory long after the book’s last page has been turned.”

—New York Journal of Books

“Laurie Loewenstein brings the reader into the past, to Chautauqua assemblies, World War I France, and Midwestern small-town life. But like all good historical fiction, Unmentionables uses the past as a way to illuminate large, pertinent questions—of race and gender, of love and death, of action and consequence. Meticulously researched and exquisitely written, Unmentionables is a memorable debut.”

—Ann Hood, author of The Obituary Writer

“Laurie Loewenstein’s Unmentionables, a story of prejudice, struggle, and redemption, is compulsively readable and immensely seductive. Buffeted by the immense societal changes surrounding World War I, Loewenstein’s characters—deftly drawn and as familiar to the reader as friends from childhood—fight for love, equality, and ultimately justice in a world awash in the volatile cusp of change. At once intimate and wide-ranging, Unmentionables illuminates both the triumph and cost of sacrifice, along with its hard-won rewards.”

—Robin Oliveira, author of My Name Is Mary Sutter and The Winter Sisters

“I loved this beautiful book, set amid the cornfields and tree-lined streets of a quiet Illinois farm town during the First World War. Loewenstein’s ability to create a moment in history is authoritative and accurate. Love, fear, shame, regret, hope, and independence intertwine as the story moves from farm country to war-torn France and big-city Chicago. This is a perfect book club pick, dealing with real history, real issues that are still relevant today.”

—Taylor M. Polities, author of The Rebel Wife

“Unmentionables transports the reader to a time not that long ago—when women were not allowed to vote and racial prejudice was commonplace—when so much was different, but human nature was so much the same. Treating us to a captivating narrative that illuminates as it entertains, Loewenstein reminds us that it is the courage and integrity of individual people that changes the world.”