The Butte Girls' Club A Novel

Growing up is never easy, but with friends by your side, anything seems possible. Welcome to Butte, Montana, in the 1960s-a mile-high copper mining town perched high in the Rocky Mountains, straddling the Continental Divide. Known proudly as Butte, America, this "Richest Hill on Earth" is a maze of mines, churches, and bars that eat, breathe, and belches copper. Butte is infamous for its rugged and rowdy culture, where kids often carve their own paths. When young Jo Wolohan's hardworking father dies unexpectedly, her world flips upside down and makes no sense. Her childhood becomes cluttered with the uncertainty of mining strikes, and the smell of stale bread and empty cupboards becomes all too familiar. The Kennedys rise and fall, there is talk of racing the Russians to the moon, and rebellion brews in the young like a frothy Butte beer. Jo's mother, Lilly, struggles to manage her grief and the massive apartment house that's their sole source of income. When Lilly becomes free-spirited and retreats from parenting, Jo grapples with loss, grief, and newfound responsibilities on her own. She relies on her three closest friends-Maggie, Cat, and Mikey Ann.