The Magic of Ordinary Days A Novel [Paperback]

Olivia Dunne, a studious minister's daughter who dreams of becoming an archaeologist, never thought that the drama of World War II would affect her quiet life in Denver. But when an exhilarating flirtation reshapes her life, she finds herself in a rural Colorado outpost, married to a man she hardly knows. Overwhelmed by loneliness, Olivia tentatively tries to establish a new life, finding muchneeded friendship and solace in two Japanese American sisters who are living at a nearby internment camp. When Olivia unwittingly becomes an accomplice to a crime and is faced with betrayal, she finally confronts her own yearnings and comes to understand what she truly believes about the nature of trust and love.

INTRODUCTION

History has a way of bringing the past to life, conjuring up people and places that have long since disappeared. Living in the past is also a way to flee the present, to experience and perhaps live in a world that is not complicated by emotion and regret. Livvy could have never imagined that her life would take a course that was so distant from the dream she had for herself—her hopes to become an archeologist, to lead a cloistered yet fulfilling life. But she becomes pregnant and unexpectedly finds herself far from home and her family, married to a man she does not know, as the country is on the brink of war. As she explains it, in one fleeting moment I stripped away the petals of my future, let them catch wind, and fly away.

At first, Livvy feels almost as though she is in exile as she struggles to come to terms with her feelings of loneliness. Ever since I had been quite young, she admits, I could resist those who went against me, had been able to deny their opinions. . . . My inner strength came from an ablC"