Karen Kelly's Bethlehem: A Novel
Bethlehem
by Karen Kelly
While visiting her three daughters at Lehigh University over the course of nine years, Karen Kelly became inspired. She’d stay at Historic Hotel Bethlehem, walk across the street to the Moravian Book Shop and read all about Bethlehem Steel. Kelly was enamored of Bethlehem Steel and how it impacted our country in so many ways, creating the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Rockefeller Center, Madison Square Garden and more. “The significance of that extraordinary production boggled my mind,” she says. Bethlehem became one of her favorite towns and she found that she loved writing about it. And so, Kelly decided to set her debut novel during the time of Bethlehem Steel.
The book takes place during alternating timeframes of the 1920s and ’60s, and depicts the story of how far a mother will go to protect her family. In Bethlehem, Joanna Rafferty Collier moves into her husband’s family estate to help comfort her grieving mother-in-law after the passing of her father-in-law. Joanna hopes to heal her deteriorating marriage with her husband during her time there, but she discovers something completely unexpected. It’s a story of two complex women learning to understand each other and ultimately themselves. Dive into a novel of family dynamics and discover how powerful, lifelong secrets can shape our lives.
