Reliance, Illinois offers a large-hearted look at the stories animating a small town: gossip, murder, love and hate, lace making and drunken fist fights, sinners, saviors, and even an appearance by Mark Twain himself.
Illinois, 1874: With a birthmark covering half her face, thirteen-year-old Madelyn Branch is accustomed to cold and awkward greetings, and expects no less in the struggling town of Reliance. After all, her mother, Rebecca, was careful not to mention a daughter in the Matrimonial Times ad that brought them there. When Rebecca weds, Madelyn poses as her mother’s younger sister and earns a grudging berth in her new house. Deeply injured by her mother’s deceptions, Madelyn soon leaves to enter the service of Miss Rose Werner, prodigal daughter of the town’s founder. Miss Rose is a suffragette and purveyor of black market birth control who sees in Madelyn a project and potential acolyte. Madelyn, though, wants to feel beautiful and loved, and she pins her hopes on William Stark, a young photographer and haunted Civil War veteran.
Reliance, Illinois tells the story of a young woman faced with choices that will alter the course of her own future, and offers a brilliant window into American life during a period of tumultuous change.
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Praise for Reliance, Illinois
“Reliance, Illinois has it all—mystery, politics, war; love, death, and art. In finely wrought sentences, Volmer’s novel follows such a lively cast of characters, first and foremost her marvelous protagonist Madelyn. Every page is a pleasure.”
—Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
“A genuine pleasure. Reliance, Illinois is lively, witty, and evocative, with characters who pop off the page and a protagonist you’ll never forget.”
—Lou Berney, author of The Long and Far Away Gone
“Mary Volmer’s Reliance, Illinois grabbed me from the first page. Staggeringly beautiful prose, a poignant story, the whip smart heroine Maddy who I rooted for all the way. Volmer brings a universal theme of the reliance—all of us who search for it—to be found in ourselves. Do yourself a favor, clear your schedule and drink in Volmer’s radiant Reliance, Illinois.”
—Cara Black, New York Times bestselling author of Murder on the Quai
“For historical fiction buffs, Volmer’s second novel paints a compelling portrait of a small Midwestern town and its residents during a period of great change. ”
—Library Journal on Reliance, Illinois
Volmer's unforgettable protagonist lives through social evolution, the fight for women's rights and personal strife, yet she perseveres, and Reliance, Illinois, with its universal themes and evocative period detail, is uplifting.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Female protagonists in author Mary Volmer's historical fiction novels are resilient, educated, street smart, intrepid. [Reliance, Illinois] harbors unexpected twists. ”
—San Jose Mercury News
“This Mississippi river town in 1875 is home to murder, misrepresentation and mayhem. Reliance, Illinois is an entertaining historical novel.”
—The Missourian
“Mary Volmer’s lush prose draws the reader into an intricately detailed world.”
—Lois Leveen, author of Juliet’s Nurse and The Secrets of Mary Bowser
“In Reliance, Illinois, Mary Volmer creates a world at once old and new. She evokes an entire time and place through the perfect application of richly enlivening historical detail. In her depiction of the varied and often risky recourses her characters adopt in order to live well or with dignity—or at all, Volmer tells a compelling, timeless story about exigency and survival, especially for women. A deftly written page-turner that addresses universal questions with open-heartedness and verve, Reliance, Illinois offers a captivating read about an important juncture in American history.”
—Naomi J. Williams, author of Landfalls
“A lovely and moving novel—it is about language and writing, but more profoundly it is about creation: art, friendship, birth itself. Beautiful.”
—Max Byrd, author of The Paris Deadline
—Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
“A genuine pleasure. Reliance, Illinois is lively, witty, and evocative, with characters who pop off the page and a protagonist you’ll never forget.”
—Lou Berney, author of The Long and Far Away Gone
“Mary Volmer’s Reliance, Illinois grabbed me from the first page. Staggeringly beautiful prose, a poignant story, the whip smart heroine Maddy who I rooted for all the way. Volmer brings a universal theme of the reliance—all of us who search for it—to be found in ourselves. Do yourself a favor, clear your schedule and drink in Volmer’s radiant Reliance, Illinois.”
—Cara Black, New York Times bestselling author of Murder on the Quai
“For historical fiction buffs, Volmer’s second novel paints a compelling portrait of a small Midwestern town and its residents during a period of great change. ”
—Library Journal on Reliance, Illinois
Volmer's unforgettable protagonist lives through social evolution, the fight for women's rights and personal strife, yet she perseveres, and Reliance, Illinois, with its universal themes and evocative period detail, is uplifting.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Female protagonists in author Mary Volmer's historical fiction novels are resilient, educated, street smart, intrepid. [Reliance, Illinois] harbors unexpected twists. ”
—San Jose Mercury News
“This Mississippi river town in 1875 is home to murder, misrepresentation and mayhem. Reliance, Illinois is an entertaining historical novel.”
—The Missourian
“Mary Volmer’s lush prose draws the reader into an intricately detailed world.”
—Lois Leveen, author of Juliet’s Nurse and The Secrets of Mary Bowser
“In Reliance, Illinois, Mary Volmer creates a world at once old and new. She evokes an entire time and place through the perfect application of richly enlivening historical detail. In her depiction of the varied and often risky recourses her characters adopt in order to live well or with dignity—or at all, Volmer tells a compelling, timeless story about exigency and survival, especially for women. A deftly written page-turner that addresses universal questions with open-heartedness and verve, Reliance, Illinois offers a captivating read about an important juncture in American history.”
—Naomi J. Williams, author of Landfalls
“A lovely and moving novel—it is about language and writing, but more profoundly it is about creation: art, friendship, birth itself. Beautiful.”
—Max Byrd, author of The Paris Deadline
