Last Dance on the Starlight Pier
A Novel
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4.3 • 13 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A sweeping novel of resilience, hope, and the indomitable American spirit set against the backdrop of the Great Depression.
July 3. 1932. Shivering and in shock, Evie Grace Devlin watches the Starlite Palace burn into the sea and wonders how she became a person who would cause a man to kill himself. She'd come to Galveston to escape a dark past in vaudeville and become a good person, a nurse. When that dream is cruelly thwarted, Evie is swept into the alien world of dance marathons. All that she has been denied—a family, a purpose, even love—waits for her there in the place she dreads most: the spotlight.
In Last Dance on the Starlight Pier, Sarah Bird brings to spectacular life the enthralling worlds of both dance marathons and the family-run empire of vice that was Galveston in the Thirties. This historical fiction features unforgettable characters that tell a story still deeply resonant today as America learns what Evie learns—that there truly isn't anything this country can't do when we do it together. That indomitable spirit powers a story that is a testament to the deep well of resilience in us all, allowing us to not only survive the hardest of hard times, but to find joy, friends, and even family in them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bird's immersive latest (after Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen) dives into the gritty world of the Depression-era dance marathon craze. In 1932, all 21-year-old Evie Grace Devlin wants is to become a registered nurse. But she's denied graduation and the coveted RN pin from a Catholic nursing school in Galveston, Tex., after revelations surface about her past as a vaudeville performer. While in Houston visiting her mother, Evie stops in to watch a marathon competition that pits locals against professional dancers. There, she treats the sprained ankle of star pro dancer Zave Cassidy, and when the promoter sees Evie dance, he pairs her with Zave, to the delight of the audience. Evie stays with the show because she needs the money and time to figure out how to get her nursing pin. Plus she and Zave have fallen in love. His reluctance to get married stems from his conviction that, despite his best intentions, he'll make a poor husband. A disaster during a dance forces Evie to reevaluate her plans and to confront the inadequacies of modern medicine. The author brings her spunky heroine to vivid life amid the atmospheric setting. Bird's finely crafted novel is sure to delight.
