A Thread So Fine: A Novel

St. Paul, Minnesota, 1946: When Shannon was a child, her father read aloud stories of a motherless princess who ventured far from the kingdom, connected to home by only the ethereal magic of a fine, silver thread.  As a shy and quirky young woman, Shannon knows she is neither a princess nor an adventuress - that would be her sister, Eliza.  But when Shannon barely survives a year in quarantine for TB, losing any hope of motherhood herself, and when Eliza runs away after a brutal attack, the fairy tale comes to life.  On her quest to bring Eliza home, Shannon discovers a secret child, the love of a good man, and the true meaning of family remade.  But when all is said and done, is the bond between sisters strong enough to save Eliza?

As a girl, Susan listened to he mother's stories about her year in quarantine as a 19-year-old TB patient in Minnesota in the mid-1940s. As an adult, upon her mother's death, she discovered for the first time she'd been adopted at seven months old. As a writer, she used her passion for story-telling to dig herself out of the mysterious hole she found herself in, regarding her own origins and family history.