The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson
BY ellen baker
Orphan Train meets Before We Were Yours meets Water for Elephants in this compelling multigenerational novel of survival, love, and the families we make.
“A sprawling, beautiful delight of a novel spanning nearly a century as four generations gradually peel back the layers of long-buried family secrets that may just change everything. ... I immensely enjoyed this sweeping, heartrending, emotional roller coaster of a tale, which made me laugh, cry, and think about the true meaning of family."
— Kristin Harmel, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Daughter
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Available in hardcover, paperback, and audio
ABOUT THE BOOK
In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns…
and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected—and dangerous—course.
In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.
Sweeping through a long period of contemporary history, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is an immersive, compelling, and entertaining family drama centered around one remarkable woman and her determination to survive.
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“A family secret, a DNA test, a journey as rich and colorful as the early-day circus itself. Through Cecily Larson’s hidden life, Ellen Baker tenderly examines personal determination, lost love, family ties, and our innate need to discover our own truth.”
- Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours and Before and After
Praise for The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson
"Unforgettable. Baker's electrifying tale is a haunting testament to the complex intersections of familial bonds driven by a remarkable courage which can only be found in hope."
- Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek series
“The Hidden Life Of Cecily Larson explores the lasting legacy of love, family, loss, and luck, beautifully told through the lives of an extended family. It is heartbreaking, yet redeeming, and shines a light on the power of hope. I loved Ellen’s storytelling.”
- Crystal Smith Paul, author of Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
“Ellen Baker has written the quintessential escape novel, whose overflowing plot involves three generations of women, family secrets, a one-ring circus (really), and the pleasure of historical flashbacks. Light a fire and settle in.”
- Monica Wood, author of The One-in-a-Million Boy
“The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is a deeply satisfying, multi-generational rollercoaster of a novel written in gorgeous prose and with characters that ring so true you want to reach out and touch them. I savored every page of this book and will remember the story of Cecily and Lucky for a very long time to come.”
- Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and Community Board
“Part genetic mystery and part adventure story, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson takes readers on a riveting ride through America, spanning nearly a century of history, heartbreak, and—most importantly—hope. At the center of the novel is one impossible love story, whose reverberations echo through the generations in surprising ways. With rich, original settings, determined characters, and countless twists and turns, Ellen Baker has written a deeply felt novel about families, both lost and found.”
-Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon
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THE STORY BEHIND THE BOOK
Sitting down in January 2021 to plan the new novel I would write, I began with a set of questions I’d come up with some years earlier. Would it be possible to live (almost) a whole life in a small town while keeping the secrets and stories of your past hidden? And what would happen once those secrets came out?
Anyone who’s lived in a small town – as I have for most of my life, in the Midwest and in Maine – understands the near-impossibility of keeping a secret from well-meaning neighbors. Given this, I also wondered: Is reinvention ever truly possible? Or do the ideas and perceptions that people have about and of us keep us fixed squarely in the roles that we’ve always played?
I knew right away that my small town would be in northern Minnesota, where I was born and which is still, even after all the years I’ve spent living elsewhere, the place that still feels the most like ‘home’ to me. I also decided right away that my main character would be a very conventional-seeming, privileged doctor’s wife, a pillar of the community with an excellent reputation and a long and deep involvement in making her small town a better place to live. I wanted her to be someone with a great deal to lose; someone whose fall from grace – if she did indeed fall – would be spectacular.
But what would be the secrets of her past? What would be consequential enough to still matter, after decades of keeping people in the dark?
GET YOUR COPY
Available in hardcover, paperback, and audio