The Lights of Pembroke Road

"Wait for me, will you?" His voice was hoarse and thick. "I mean, it's a lot to ask, but I plan to wait for you if you'll wait for me."

It's an exacting time in American history. The desolation of the Great Depression still lingers - and the first hints of a restless shift of power overseas are beginning to seep into local news and consciousness.

For the residents of Pembroke Road, a close-knit neighborhood in Winchester, Massachusetts, the ties of family and friendship provide relief and diversion from the struggles of daily life and the cares of the increasingly complex outside world.

And for four teenagers known as the Hill Boys, an allegiance to baseball, a bond of friendship and affection for the swell girl next door all keep the specter of war in the background. Walter Hannigan, the quartet's unofficial leader, is reserved and quiet. Mike Andrews is the epitome of a teenager, gangly and awkward. Ray Simard is the gregarious joker, popular with all - and the studious, handsome Henry Smith is the shy son of two German immigrants who anxiously watch as events across the Atlantic unfold.

On December 7, 1941, the Hill Boys and Winchester are swept into the conflict as America rallies to protect itself. The community thrusts its heart into the war effort, and the once inseparable Hill Boys find themselves divided by the dictates of a country that needs them.

The war and its hardships alter their world views, shaping them into men. Sacrifices of the heart and spirit must be made, and the transformative and shifting bonds made by the four drive them toward adulthood and their destinies, creating a portrait of the Greatest Generation's fight to protect the American way of life.

The Lights of Pembroke Road is Stacey Roberts' first novel. With it, she has created a vivid and richly-evocative coming of age story set at a time in which the United States was also losing its own innocence to the unfolding story of World War II.