The Women's Center - Paperback

by Michele Fitzpatrick (Author)

Who believes, follows
Who hopes, leads
Who loves, receives
Who forgives, heals

Award-winning journalist Michele Fitzpatrick's engaging debut novel introduces four unlikely heroines in their fifties who navigate extraordinary challenges as ordinary people do: rarely smoothly, often treading water, sometimes barely afloat.

Ruth Fortune is a trustworthy CEO who trusts no one, ever. Artist Pat Conelli considers her seven children her masterpieces but wonders where she mislaid herself. June Magee is a master craftswoman who can't craft a single love match. And Diane Jonasen? Her news career is solid. Her sanity? Not so much.

They have reunited thirty-five years after they were students at Shorelake College for Women to fulfill a promise to the woman who was their college president. They set out to transform an aging Chicago mansion into a twenty-first-century women's center, unaware the process will transform them.

What can you do when loss obliterates your faith, duty blurs hope, self-doubt trumps love or guilt denies you forgiveness? Flawed, funny, occasionally furious, they are about to find out.

Author Biography

Michele Fitzpatrick is a former staff writer and columnist for the Chicago Tribune. She has also worked as an executive editor in educational research and product development. Her blog, Mrs. Fitz's Story Emporium, is a lighthearted look at living in Chicago, living as a writer and growing up in the lively 1960s. A graduate of Mundelein College and University of Iowa School of Journalism, she and her husband Richard live in Chicago. The Women's Center is her first novel.

The author is available for select literary readings and lectures. A certified teacher, she also conducts seminars on media ethics, women in the arts and narrative journalism. To inquire about a possible appearance, visit michelefitz.com.