Carolyn Rose Hall

Rose Concannon Carolyn Rose Hall

Rose Concannon is a coming-of-age novel set in Seattle, 1963. Three little girls have been murdered in a church in Montgomery, Alabama; John Kennedy has been assassinated in Dallas, Texas; and the US is quietly deposing troops to a faraway country called Vietnam. The country is in turmoil and so is the Concannon family in Seattle. Eleven year old Rose's parents abandoned the family and she is in charge. Her older brother, David, hides in his bedroom building smoke bombs, her little sister, Margaret, has become the playground extortionist and bully, and four-year-old Tommy is deaf, although no one has noticed. If Rose can get her family to school on time, clean, fed and with their homework done, they may avoid the scrutiny of the Irish nuns. Hope comes with the arrival of an unconventional, jazz-loving young Aunt.