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From
Rachel Simon:
THE STORY OF BEAUTIFUL GIRL
By Rachel Simon
Coming out from Grand Central Publishing in May 2011
An unforgettably moving love story about the improbable odds faced by a couple with disabilities and a lost child—from the author of the bestseller Riding the Bus with My Sister.
It is 1968. Lynnie, a young white woman with a developmental disability, and Homan, an African American deaf man, are locked away in an institution, the School for the Incurable and Feebleminded, and have been left to languish, forgotten. Deeply in love, they escape, and find refuge in the farmhouse of Martha, a retired schoolteacher and widow. But the couple is not alone—Lynnie has just given birth to a baby girl. When the authorities catch up to them that same night, Homan escapes into the darkness, and Lynnie is caught. But before she is forced back into the institution, she whispers two words to Martha: “Hide her.” And so begins the 40-year epic journey of Lynnie, Homan, Martha, and baby Julia-lives divided by seemingly insurmountable obstacles, yet drawn together by a secret pact-and extraordinary love.
Rachel Simon’s previous book, the bestseller Riding the Bus with My Sister (Houghton Mifflin, 2002; paperback with Plume, 2003), is a memoir about her year riding city buses with her developmentally disabled sister. Adapted for a 2005 Hallmark Hall of Fame movie starring Rosie O’Donnell and Andie MacDowell, it is a seminal book in the disability community.
Rachel Simon is also the author of the critically acclaimed The House on Teacher’s Lane (Plume, 2010) and The Magic Touch (Viking, 1994), as well as a book for writers, The Writer’s Survival Guide (Story Press, 1997), and a collection of short stories, Little Nightmares, Little Dreams (Houghton Mifflin, 1990). Rachel Simon, who used to teach creative writing at a number of universities, now writes full-time. She also does professional speaking about issues of importance in the disability community. She lives in Delaware.
