My first novel, KEEPING THE HOUSE, is the story of a young housewife in 1950, Dolly Magnuson, who thinks there must be more to life than ironing her husband's shirts and planning his next meal. She ends up getting tangled up in the mystery, romance, and scandal of an abandoned, and reputedly cursed, Victorian house when she breaks into it intending to fix it up -- thinking that living in such a place couldn't help but make her life more spectacular. But when she's discovered there by the family's grandson, a Marine veteran of WWII who lost his leg at Iwo Jima, she ends up uncovering more about the story of the family that once lived there, and about herself, than she ever dreamed possible....
"KEEPING THE HOUSE is an achievement of plot and character, introducing Ellen Baker as an author who knows how to keep us turning the pages."
-- Chicago Tribune
"Do yourself a major favor at the bookstore this summer: Pick up Ellen Baker’s KEEPING THE HOUSE and start reading. Don’t be surprised if you can’t put it down. For hot summer nights, American fiction just doesn’t get any better than this."
--Buffalo News
"Rich and absorbing and satisfying."
-- Roanoke Times
"Writing a novel for the first time is a daunting enough task, but taking on a family saga spanning 50 years is truly a grand accomplishment -- especially when executed as beautifully as Ellen Baker's KEEPING THE HOUSE. From the very first page I was so effortlessly drawn under the spell of her authentic characters and wonderful storytelling that I found myself becoming petulant whenever real life vied for my attention... KEEPING THE HOUSE is a superb debut from a bright new talent."
-- Book-of-the-Month Club
Winner of the Great Lakes Book Award for Fiction
One of the Chicago Tribune's "Favorite books of 2007"
An "Insider Discovery" of the Literary Guild
A featured selection of the Doubleday Book Club
A BookSense Notable pick
A Midwest Connections Pick
For more information or to order my book, click here to visit my website
Click here to visit Dolly's MySpace page
