"Is This Tomorrow"

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You, which sold to six countries, went into five printings, and was a San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick, a Costco "Pennie's Pick" and a NAIBA bestseller. Pictures of You is also a USA Today ebook bestseller and is on the Best Books of 2011 List from the San Francisco Chronicle, Providence Journal, Kirkus Reviews and Bookmarks Magazine. It's also one of Kirkus Reviews Top 5 books of 2011 about the Family and love.

Leavitt applied the Page 69 Test to Is This Tomorrow, her tenth and latest novel, and reported the following:

This is so funny, this page 69 test, because when I chose a portion for my readings, I actually chose pages 66-72.

This section is when 12-year-old Jimmy has vanished and the 1950s suburban neighborhood is in chaos. They’re already paranoid about the threat of Communism and a child vanishing disrupts their belief that the suburbs are paradise, that nothing bad can possibly happen in such an environment.

Cops are swarming around, questioning all the neighbors. Ava Lark, Jewish in a Christian neighborhood, divorced at a time when such a thing is pure scandal, a working mother at a time when women’s work was tending house and kids, with more than a few boyfriends and a relationship that seemed a bit too close with Jimmy, is suspect. These pages are about the cop questioning her, and as he does, we learn that he’s more interested in how she’s different from everyone else, than whether or not she has any real information about what really happened that terrible day.

View the trailer for Is This Tomorrow, and learn more about the book and author at Caroline Leavitt's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Pictures of You.

My Book, the Movie: Pictures of You.

Writers Read: Caroline Leavitt.

--Marshal Zeringue