About the Book

In BEFORE DOROTHY, Hazel Gaynor imagines the life of the woman who raised a beloved heroine, Dorothy’s Auntie Em, as a young farmer’s wife on the Kansas prairies during the Great Depression and dust bowl era of the 1930s, pondering the question: What is the true meaning of home?

About the Author

Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, Irish Times and internationally bestselling author known for her deeply moving historical novels which explore the defining events of the 20th century. A debut recipient of the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year, her work has since been shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown Award, the 2020 RNA Awards, and the Irish Book Awards in 2017, 2020 and 2023. When We Were Young and Brave was a national bestseller in the USA, and her most recent novel, The Last Lifeboat, was a Times of London historical novel of the month and a 2024 Audie winner for Best Fiction Narrator. Hazel’s work has been translated into twenty languages and is published in twenty-seven territories to date. She lives in Ireland with her family. Before Dorothy is her most ambitious novel to date and she gets goosebumps every time she talks about it!

About Jillian

Jillian Forsberg is a Wichita-based author who writes primarily animal-based historical fiction. Her first novel, The Rhino Keeper, focuses on the true story of a rhino named Clara who traveled 18th century Europe. Her second book, The Porcelain Menagerie, is a companion to the first, available 10/21/25.