The Heirloom Girls

Can an ancient crystal pendant change the course of a young woman's life? Or does the courage to make change come from the sheer will and solidarity of women passing it down from one generation to the next? As Hurricane Sandy bears down on New York's Rockaway Peninsula, it's up to seventeen year-old Maya Jones to bring her 105-year-old great grandmother to safety. But Maya has another challenge: To recover a mysterious family heirloom - and the source of a generational feud between mothers and daughters - from the chaos of natural disaster. As she struggles to save her great grandmother from the hurricane, we discover how the women in her family came to believe an ancient crystal pendant changed each of their young lives. From a suffragist misdiagnosed an "hysteric," to a "lost girl" of Roaring Twenties Paris; from a rebellious 1950's Greenwich Village artist to a seventies feminist in India - 21st Century American girl Maya unearths not only the story of the heirloom girls and the men who loved them, but how belief in oneself can empower women and girls all over the world.

Chris Culler’s previous novels are ＂Giving Good Hollywood＂ (listed on Kirkus Reviews ＂Best Indies of 2011＂), and ＂101 Ways Your Mother Said You Could Die.＂ She grew up in South America and Iran, and currently lives with her husband in Venice, California where she works in the film industry as a story analyst for a major studio.