The Author's Corner with Anne Macdonald in Conversation with Lisa Ballew
About
We welcome Anne Macdonald to The Author's Corner at 7p.m. on Tuesday, September 22nd to talk about her latest novel, The Macdonalds of Cedar Park . Anne Macdonald is a writer with deep New England roots. Her current book is inspired by members of her rather ordinary, Melrose based family, involved in some of the extraordinary events of WWII, including the Manhattan Project and the 10th Mountain Division. Based on real letters from an ordinary American family, this is not a story about generals or battles. It is about what happens to a family when the world is at war and demands everything, and the government demands their silence. When Pearl Harbor is attacked, and the country goes to war, Donald “Mac” Macdonald is recruited by the Manhattan Project. His wife, Bertha, manages the new rules regarding blackouts, rationing, recycling rubber and tin needed for the war effort, and security around her husband’s new job. Their oldest, Sonny, 18, knows he’ll be drafted and endeavors to join the ski-and-mountaineering troops, the 10th Mountain Division, using his friends and family to gather the necessary recommendations. Youngest son, Ig, is about to enter High School, becomes a messenger in the Boston office of the Manhattan Project, and at 15, gets his driver’s license to deliver groceries. While Mac uses all his engineering skills in the race to bring the boys home, Sonny is determined to survive in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, and Ig has lost his carefree teenage years to wor
