"July 3. 1932. Shivering and in shock, Evie Grace Devlin watches the Starlite Palace burn into the sea and wonders how she became a person who would cause a man to kill himself. She'd come to Galveston to escape a dark past in vaudeville and become a good person, a nurse. When that dream is cruelly thwarted, Evie is swept into the alien world of dance marathons. All that she has been denied--a family, a purpose, even love--waits for her there in the...

"Leaving was my sister's choice. I would have to make my own. All Harriet Szász has ever known is life onstage with her sister, Josie. As "The Sisters Sweet," they pose as conjoined twins in a vaudeville act conceived of by their ambitious parents, who were once themselves theatrical stars. But after Josie exposes the family's fraud and runs away to Hollywood, Harriet must learn to live out of the spotlight--and her sister's shadow. As Josie's star...

The year is 1908, and a troupe of vaudeville performers has arrived in sleepy Muskegon, Michigan to spend the summer. Young Henry Harrison is fascinated with the animals and performers, but mostly with a slapstick performer his own age named Buster Keaton, who is also a master prankster and loves to play baseball.

When Jules comes to see her after his return from the war, Ella finds it difficult to have some time alone with him.

5On her eighteenth birthday, Hilde leaves her orphanage in 1930s Berlin, and heads out into the world to discover her place in it. But finding a job is hard, at least until she stumbles into Café Lila, a vibrant cabaret full of expressive customers. Rosa, one of the club's waitresses and performers, immediately takes Hilde under her wing. As the café denizens slowly embrace Hilde, and she embraces them in turn, she discovers her voice and her own...

"In 1917, Jessie Carr, fourteen years old and sole heiress to her family's vast fortune, disappeared without a trace. Now, years later, her uncle Oliver Beckett thinks he's found her: a young actress in a vaudeville playhouse is a dead ringer for his missing niece. But when Oliver confronts the girl, he learns he's wrong. Orphaned young, Leah's been acting since she was a toddler. Oliver, never one to miss an opportunity, makes a proposition: with...

She has a powerful voice able to mesmerize the vaudeville audiences, but Annalise Rycroft has spent her whole life afraid she'll be lost to obscurity. During the 1918 flu epidemic she has a feverish experience: characters from her favorite book unlock a hidden part of her past, which involves an absent father and a missing younger brother. As Annalise rises to stardom, a stranger with fears and failing of his own takes center stage in her life. Together...