Dawn O'Hara: The Girl Who Laughed

“But best of all, the fascination of the People I’d Like to Know. They pop up now and then in the shifting crowds, and are gone the next moment, leaving behind them a vague regret. Sometimes I call them the People I’d Like to Know and sometimes I call them the People I Know I’d Like, but it means much the same. Their faces flash by in the crowd, and are gone, but I recognize them instantly as belonging to my beloved circle of unknown friends.”

After years of living in boarding houses and working to pay for the care of her mentally ill husband, Dawn O’Hara feels closer to fifty than twenty-eight—and on the edge of a mental breakdown. The stress of her life and the hustle and bustle of the big city send her to the doctor, who advises her to return to her small hometown in Michigan to recuperate. With the help of her devoted sister and a handsome German doctor, Dawn is able to get a job as a newspaper reporter, meet new people, and have a year’s worth of adventure. She is ready to start fresh in the countryside, but with the looming memory of her husband in the hospital, she fears she will never truly be free to love—or to be herself—again.

Edna Ferber’s first novel was inspired by the author’s own time as a reporter in the city and the countryside. Dawn O’Hara: The Girl Who Laughed shows, from the beginning of her career, the heart, humor, and striking insight that would be present in Ferber’s future work.