"A Map to Paradise"

Susan Meissner is a USA Today bestselling novelist with more than a million books in readers’ hands and in eighteen languages. Her critically acclaimed and award-winning works of historical fiction have been named to numerous lists including Publishers Weekly’s annual roster of 100 best books, Library Reads Top Picks, Real Simple's annual tally of best books, Booklist’s Top Ten, Book of the Month, and Amazon Editors’ Pick. Her newest title is A Map to Paradise, a novel about belonging, friendship, and finding one’s way home, and is set in California during the early and scary years of the Cold War. Susan lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab, Winston.

Meissner applied the Page 69 Test to A Map to Paradise and came up with following:

From page 69:

“For heaven’s sake,” Melanie said in an exasperated voice. “Elwood is not some kind of madman who can’t handle seeing a stranger! He just doesn’t go outside. And it’s not a disturbance to ask someone if there’s anything you can do for them.”

So on the fourth afternoon, and while June was sitting on the couch with pages of Elwood’s current screenplay to proofread, Eva did attempt to make contact from the hall side of his bedroom door, behind which she heard the sound of a radio playing and the whirring of an oscillating fan. She tapped on the door as lightly as she could and said softly, “Mr. Blankenship? Is there anything I can get for you? Mr. Blankenship?”

There’d been no answer.

With a trembling hand and a whispered prayer she’d tried the doorknob. It would not turn.

In this little snippet from A Map to Paradise, Melanie Cole, a blacklisted actress hiding out in 1956 Malibu, is worried about the agoraphobic screenwriter who lives next door. She hasn’t seen Elwood in a while and she’s worried that June Blankenship, his sister-in-law and live-in caregiver, isn’t being truthful when Melanie asks about him. Melanie has tasked her housekeeper, an Eastern European immigrant named Eva Kruse who lost everything and everyone in WW2, to find out if Elwood is okay. Eva has the means to do it as Melanie has loaned her housekeeper to June for a little while June recovers from a strained back. We see in this scene on page 69 that Eva is unable to do what Melanie has directed her to do—which is make sure Elwood is all right.

This scene is not exactly pivotal to the story’s overall takeaway, but it is absolutely essential to understanding what will compel these three women to become allies to each other. They have nothing in common except the loss or imminent loss of all that defines them, all that makes them feel safe and secure and believing they are right where they belong.

This is a story about three women all facing some kind of displacement. Melanie the actress has been caught up in the Red Scare that was rampant in Hollywood in the 1950s and she’s been ousted from the only career she’s ever wanted. Eva the housekeeper is one of the eleven million Displaced Persons made homeless by World War 2 and she has also lied on her immigration papers. She is pretending to be Polish, when in fact she was born in Russia. And June stands to lose her home, her livelihood and the man she secretly loves if he dies. And he’s not well.

It's a story that explores what a person will do to get back what was taken from them or prevent it from being taken in the first place. It’s about imagining there could be a map that will lead you back to what you once had.

If only it were that easy.

Visit Susan Meissner's website.

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--Marshal Zeringue