The Atomic City Girls

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Beard, Janet, Fiction / Beard, Janet
On Shelf At: Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Beard, Janet	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Beard, Janet	4-week checkout	Due 05-10-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Beard, Janet	4-week checkout	Due 05-25-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Beard, Janet	4-week checkout	Due 05-02-2024

In November 1944, eighteen-year-old June Walker boards an unmarked bus, destined for a city that doesnt officially exist. Oak Ridge, Tennessee has sprung up in a matter of monthsa town of trailers and segregated houses, 24-hour cafeterias, and constant security checks. There, June joins hundreds of other young girls operating massive machines whose purpose is never explained. They know they are helping to win the war, but must ask no questions and reveal nothing to outsiders. The girls spend their evenings socializing and flirting with soldiers, scientists, and workmen at dances and movies, bowling alleys and canteens. June longs to know more about their top-secret assignment and begins an affair with Sam Cantor, the young Jewish physicist from New York who oversees the lab where she works and understands the end goal only too well, while her beautiful roommate Cici is on her own mission: to find a wealthy husband and escape her sharecropper roots. Across town, African-American construction worker Joe Brewer knows nothing of the governments plans, only that his new job pays enough to make it worth leaving his family behind, at least for now. But a breach in security will intertwine his fate with Junes search for answers. When the bombing of Hiroshima brings the truth about Oak Ridge into devastating focus, June must confront her ideals about loyalty, patriotism, and war itself.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Interesting submitted by sara on July 3, 2020, 1:11pm Besides reading a good story, I learned about a part of the Manhattan Project I had never heard of before. Black and white photos from the time are also included as you read, which help you better understand the details.