Description: In a world that wants to silence them, one group of women dares to sing.
For eight years, Eliza Kingwell has been secretly saving for one thing: enough money to escape her violent husband and take her five daughters to safety. When he finds and takes the money, her only option is to enter a local singing competition that offers a cash prize large enough to change her life. She gathers a group of feisty, working-class women into a choir to compete for it.
Ruth Henton left Briarstown twelve years ago and became a star on the London stage. Now disgraced by scandal, she has returned to Yorkshire as a judge in the very competition Eliza needs to win.
Two estranged friends find themselves on opposite sides of the same stage, with years of secrets, wounds, and unfinished business between them. As Eliza's choir trains for its chance at glory, friendships deepen, long-buried wounds surface, and both women must decide what they are willing to forgive.
Set in a fictional mill town in 1890s Yorkshire, The Choir is a story of music, sisterhood, and women who find their voices when the world would rather they stayed silent.
Perfect for fans of Tracy Chevalier, Pip Williams, and Jennifer Chiaverini.
Review Quotes:
Advance Praise for The Choir
"A stirring exploration of how music can mend broken spirits and how women, when lifting each other up, create a harmony stronger than any single voice. Eliza and Ruth's intersecting lives in the late 1890s come alive vividly on the page, with every detail showcasing the depth of research Cram used in creating the novel. The Choir shines with themes of resilience, friendship, and hope."
-Eliza Knight, USA Today bestselling author of Starring Adele Astaire
"Two women wrestle with life's unexpected turns in Carol M. Cram's absorbing new novel, The Choir. Ruth is a 'professional beauty' and singing star of the London stage. Her childhood friend Eliza has left her love of singing in the past as she navigates motherhood and a brutal marriage in an English mining town. Reunited after years apart, the women's past and deep connections are revealed. Through shifts of fortune, these characters come together over the music that once united them. Cram's engaging novel is a testament to female resilience, friendship, and the power of song."
-Judith Lindbergh, author of Akmaral and The Thrall's Tale
"The Choir is a poignant, fascinating, page-turning tale. Carol Cram's prose is beautifully descriptive and her characters are compellingly rendered. This impeccably researched novel will take you on a heartfelt, sometimes painful, but ultimately uplifting journey that brims with emotion and joyous musicality. Highly recommended!"
-Syrie James, bestselling author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, and The Mysteries of Pendowar Hall
"Completely absorbing! We care so much about these two young Englishwomen in 1897 struggling up from poverty and loveless lives by the power of friendship and music. I cheered for them on every page of The Choir and read enraptured to the end in the small hours of the morning."
-Stephanie Cowell, author of The Man in the Stone Cottage: a novel of the Brontë Sisters and The Boy in the Rain, American Book Award recipient
"Bound by hardship and divided by loss, two former friends discover resilience and reconciliation through music. In her beautifully wrought novel, The Choir, set in 1890s England, Carol M. Cram deftly composes a lyrical portrait of courage, forgiveness, and the redemptive power of music. This story is rich with history and heart, and will remain with you like a favorite song."
-Herb Williams-Dalgart, author of Jingle Boys and The French Girl's War
"Carol Cram's The Choir is a charming tale of two working-class women in Victorian England, whose love of singing helps each surmount trials in the nurturing space of a choir. Cram brings to life the transformative power of music and the resilience of the human spirit. Anyone who has sung in a choir knows how it can foster a sense of community and mutual encouragement, just as these two women did. The Choir is an empowering story about reclaiming one's own voice."
-Nancy Burkhalter, author of The Education of Delhomme