Although BAKER TOWERS sounds like it should be set in an upscale
apartment complex or perhaps an exclusive prep school, it actually
takes place in a less glamorous, but equally evocative, setting ---
the small coal mining town of Bakerton, in western Pennsylvania.
The "towers" of the title are actually "two looming piles of mine
waste. They are forty feet high and growing, graceful slopes of
loose coal and sulfurous dirt … On windy days they glow soft
orange, like the embers of a campfire. Scrap coal, spontaneously
combusting; a million bits of coal bursting into flame." The Towers
always remain in the background of the novel's action, a quiet but
powerful reminder of the town's industrial base and, eventually, a
reminder of its past prosperity.

Bookmarked by two major wars --- World War II and Vietnam --- BAKER
TOWERS follows the fortunes of the Novak children in the wake of
their coal miner father's death in the book's opening pages. Born
to a Polish father and an Italian mother, the five Novak children
seem to bridge the ethnic divides in their small town --- they live
in a company house on Polish Hill, but grow up loving their
mother's Italian cooking and customs.

Like many young people of their generation, the Novaks dream of
escaping their small town. Handsome younger brother Sandy
successfully and glibly leaves his industrial roots behind. Older
brother Georgie, seduced by a life of wealth and glamour in
suburban Philadelphia, escapes, only to regret his choice later in
life. Sisters Dorothy and Joyce leave for a while, only to return
after the outside world proves disillusioning or even dangerous.
Only baby sister Lucy, whose talents and resources suggest that she
would leave Bakerton at the first opportunity, truly chooses to
stay.

As the five Novaks come to terms --- willingly or grudgingly ---
with the hand their fate has dealt them, they find happiness in
unexpected places. Their individual dramas and romances play out
against the backdrop of a company town that is collapsing under its
own weight --- first the company houses go up for sale, then the
company store closes, the union goes on strike, and finally a
catastrophic event changes the mine and the town forever.

As she did in her award-winning first novel, MRS. KIMBLE, Jennifer
Haigh focuses on the trials and tribulations of women's lives,
particularly in the years during and after World War II. With
masterful plotting and small details, she brings to life the small
joys and quiet desperation of the miners' sweethearts, wives and
widows. If BAKER TOWERS has a fault, it is that Haigh, in
effectively keeping five balls in the air, sometimes loses a grip
on one or two --- it's not always clear how younger brother Sandy
figures into the story, for example. However, readers will be more
than happy to forgive a few dropped balls as they enjoy an
ultimately satisfying, compelling story about a way of life that is
fast becoming a thing of the past.