A Harsh and Private Beauty, is about the life and loves of Ruby Grace, now in her 89th year, on a train journey with her granddaughter back to Chicago, the city of her birth.
The novel traces Ruby\'s grandparent\'s immigration from Ireland to New York City, her father, Daniel Kenny\'s life in 1920s Chicago--the era of gangsters, nigh.
When the book opens, Ruby is living in a retirement care home, but as a young woman, she was a jazz and blues singer, once trained for a career in opera.
A Harsh and Private Beauty, is about the life and loves of Ruby Grace, now in her 89th year, on a train journey with her granddaughter back to Chicago, the city of her birth