Kate Burton

When her daughter runs away to her aunt in California, Merritt Fowler of Georgia takes a plane to bring her back, the trip a welcome change from a demanding husband and an equally demanding mother-in-law who is suffering from Alzheimer's. The scene is set for a steamy romance during an earthquake.

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is the coming-of-age story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet fromative years in the turn-of-the-century Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn. This poignant and moving classic of American literature is filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and incident.