In 1843, newlyweds Nathan and Mary Kingsley envision a good life in their new house in the pioneer community of Livonia, Michigan-until a runaway slave on the Underground Railroad takes refuge in their cellar, and Mary must make a desperate attempt to save her wounded husband and the slave from pursuing hunters.Drawing on her own family history, Arliss Ryan has written a classic American tale: the richly imagined story of five generations-from Nathan's son Horace, a born schemer who is all too ready to sacrifice his birthright; to Emma, who helps sustain the family through a heartbreaking diphtheria epidemic; to Nathan's great-great-granddaughter Laura, who falls in love with a daredevil pilot. By the time the wilderness where Nathan built his home has grown into a suburb of Detroit, the Kingsley House has seen wicked deeds, a summer of lost childhood, a suicide, and a chance to fall in love a second time.Arliss Ryan vividly brings over one hundred years of American history to life through the unforgettable story of a simple family house-and the generations whose lives passed within its walls.AUTHORBIO: Arliss Ryan, a writer, sailor, pilot, and the great-great-great granddaughter of Nathan Kingsley, lives in Newport, Rhode Island. This is her first novel. The real Kingsley House was taken off its foundations in 1977 and moved to Greenmead, a historic village outside Detroit.