The Book of Silver Linings

In this delicately crafted story from Fischer (Some of It Was Real), Constance wants nothing more than safety after a difficult childhood and to keep the people around her happy. So when she’s proposed to by her stable, comfortable boyfriend Hayden—who is predictable and loves her, even though he doesn’t seem to care about her interests and doesn’t excite her—she says yes. On a teacher’s and a paralegal’s salary, they’ll never be rich, but they’ll be fine. But her engagement ring looks extraordinarily expensive, and when she does some research, Constance discovers that Hayden has bought her an heirloom ring worth over $25,000. That leads her to learn the love story of the ring’s original owners, a long-dead couple who met during World War I. While researching the couple at the library, Constance tucks a letter confessing her confusion about her fiancé into an old book of letters in the library’s special collections and, somehow, receives a letter back, seemingly from the ghost of a dead man. The correspondence helps Constance face her past, open up her world to new friends, and find true love in the present.