The United States Congress in 1929 passed legislation to invest in travel for moms from the fallen soldiers of World War I to go to their sons’ graves in France. Over the next three years, 6,693 Silver Star Mothers made the trip. In this psychologically charged, brilliantly understood novel, April Smith breathes existence into a unique moment in American history, imagining the knowledge of five of these women.

These are strangers in the beginning, but their lives can be inextricably intertwined, altered in about A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Book indelible ways. These completely different Gold Star Mothers happen to be the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery to say final good-byes with their sons and come together along the way to face the unpredicted: a death, a scandal, and a magic formula revealed.

None of these pilgrims will end up being as affected seeing that Cora Blake, that has lived almost her lifetime in a small fishing village off the coast of Maine, looking after her later sister’s 3 daughters, hoping to fill the void still left by the death of her boy, Sammy, who was simply killed on the scouting mission through the last times of the battle. Cora believes she actually is managing as well as should be expected amid the Major depression, but nothing provides ready her for what lies ahead upon this unpredictable journey, including a fantastic encounter with an expatriate American journalist, Griffin Reed, who was wounded in the trenches and hides behind a steel mask, among a huge selection of “tin noses” who became symbols of the war.

With expert storytelling, memorable personas, and beautiful prose, April Smith gives us a timeless tale, by turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, set against a footnote of history–little known, yet unforgettable.