"Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable. In the early 1800s, Clawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. By the 1940s, little remains of her legacy but a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate, including the cottage where Austen wrote or revised her books. With the winds of change blowing through the country in the postwar days and the cottage's future now in the hands of fate, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy for the world. These people--a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others--could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with the loss and trauma of war and other tragedies, they find solace, connection, and hope in rallying together to create the Jane Austen Society. A powerful and moving novel that explores the tragedies and triumphs of life, both large and small, and the universal humanity in us all.-- Provided by publisher.