The Evolution of Annabel Craig

Annabel Hayes grew up on her parents’ farm near the town of Dayton, TN. When her parents die in the 1918 flu pandemic, Annabel sells the farm and moves to town. She meets and marries George Craig, a lawyer who sweeps her off her feet. Sadly, Annabel’s first year of marriage is marked by tragedy, unfulfilled dreams, and painful adjustments. Then, in 1925, John Scopes is arrested for teaching evolution in Dayton. George joins Scopes’s legal team, led by his hero, defense attorney Clarence Darrow. The prosecution’s team is led by the famed politician William Jennings Bryan, and the trial weighs the science of evolution against faith and the biblical creation story. Narrator Erin Bennett skillfully performs Grunwald’s (Time After Time) historical novel, offering a layered portrait of Annabel, whose worldview is upended by the arguments put forth as the trial proceeds. Encounters with reporters and scientists cause her to rethink assumptions she’d always taken for granted and see the world—and herself—in a new light. Bennett’s depiction of the emotional upheaval caused by the trial is gripping.