The say so - julia franks

From the award-winning author of Over the Plain Houses comes a major novel about two young women contending with unplanned pregnancies in different eras.

Edie Carrigan didnt plan to get herself pregnant, much less end up in a home for unwed mothers.

In 1950s North Carolina, illegitimate pregnancy is kept secret, wayward women require psychiatric cures, and adoption is always the best solution.

Not even Edies closest friend, Luce Waddell, understands what Edie truly wants: to keep and raise the baby.

Twenty-five years later, Luce is a successful lawyer, and her daughter Meera now faces the same decision Edie once did.

Like Luce, Meera is fiercely independent and plans to handle her unexpected pregnancy herself.

Along the way, Meera finds startling secrets about her mothers past, including the long-ago friendship with Edie.

As the three womens lives intertwine and collide, the story circles age-old questions about female awakening, reproductive choice, motherhood, adoption, sex, and missed connections.

For fans of Brit Bennetts The Mothers and Jennifer Weiners Mrs.

Everything , The Say So is a timely novel that asks: how do we contend with the rippling effects of the choices weve made? With equal parts precision and tenderness, Franks has crafted a sweeping epic about the coming of age of the womens movement that reverberates through the present day.