Books by Susan Wittig Albert

It's Christmas, 1934, and the citizens of Darling, Alabama, are unwrapping a big package of Christmas puzzles. NYT best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert takes us to a place where real people have courage, respect their neighbours, and dream of doing their best, even when they're not sure what that is.

Set during the chaotic years of World War II, The General’s Women tells the story of the conflicted relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and Kay Summersby, his Irish driver/aide, and the impact of that relationship on Mamie Eisenhower and her life in Washington during the war. Told from three alternating points of view (Kay’s, Ike’s, and Mamie’s), the novel charts the deepening of the relationship as Ike and Kay move from England (1942) to North Africa (1942-43) to England, France, and Germany before and after the Normandy landing (1944-45). At the end of the war, Ike is faced with the heart-wrenching choice between marrying Kay and a political future.The story continues into the post-war years, as Ike (returning to Mamie) becomes Army Chief of Staff, president of Columbia University, Supreme Commander of NATO, and president of the United States. Kay, meanwhile, struggles to create a life and work of her own, writing two memoirs: the first (Eisenhower Was My Boss, 1948) about her war work with Ike; the second (Past Forgetting, 1976) about their love affair. An author’s note deals with the complicated question of the truth of Kay’s story, as it finally appears in the posthumously-published Past Forgetting.

In this beautifully written memoir, the author of the popular China Bayles mystery series meditates on what it means to be married-to a person and a place-while also needing to be alone and experience silence and solitude.

Amplified with reading lists and quotations from a wide diversity of writers, best-selling mystery author Susan Wittig Albert's thoughtful and thought-provoking journal of the tumultuous year 2008 is a must-read for everyone fascinated by the writing life and the writer's role in society.