Yours from the Tower

Starred review from October 16, 2023
Via letters rendered using a chatty, confiding tone, Nicholls (The Silent Stars Go By) presents a captivating epistolary novel set in 1896 that chronicles the friendship of teens Tirzah, Sophia, and Polly after they leave boarding school and embark on separate lives. Contrarian Tirzah chafes in her role as an unpaid companion to her grandmother in Scotland, practical Sophia revels in participating in her first London Season but faces pressure to find a wealthy husband to help her financially struggling family, and idealistic Polly teaches in an orphanage in Liverpool. Within the confines of the expectations placed on them, each girl challenges her circumstances: as Tirzah seeks out her absent mother, Sophia questions whether she can marry only for money, and Polly tries to unite orphan siblings with their long-lost father. The girls’ letters offer insight into their longings and dreams as they face individual hardships and triumphs, and interspersed among the teens’ correspondence are gossipy newspaper items and mail from other characters, including Sophia’s charming—if not entirely suitable, according to her family—beau. With great affection and sympathy, these winning heroines forge their own paths in this highly readable, tautly paced work. Main characters cue as white. Ages 14–up.