Macedonia, W.Va., is the back end of nowhere. When Layla Beck's senator father forces her to take a job with the Federal Writers' Project, researching and writing a history of Macedonia, she quickly learns there's more to this sleepy little town than meets the eye. During the sweltering summer of 1938, Layla uncovers more than a few secrets--and learns a thing or two about truth and history.
In The Truth According to Us, Annie Barrows (author of the Ivy and Bean children's series and co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) creates a cast of lovably eccentric characters who charm Layla as much as they baffle her. The once-prominent, still-genteel Romeyn family, with whom Layla boards for the summer, prove particularly intriguing, especially Josephine "Jottie" Romeyn, a quiet, proud woman who spends her life caring for her wayward brother's daughters.
As the family hosiery mill deals with labor unrest and the Romeyn household bubbles with barely suppressed secrets, Layla interviews various Macedonians for her book. Her subjects, who include several leading town families and the local librarian, give wildly differing accounts of key figures and events in the town's history. Struggling to shape fact and legend into a coherent narrative, Layla learns that "history is the autobiography of the historian."
Barrows ends her story rather abruptly, and the epilogue doesn't answer all the questions raised by the book's final chapters. But this warmhearted Southern novel, full of charm and sass, still proves a satisfying read. Like Layla, readers will find themselves longing to spend more time in Macedonia. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams