Maine, 1919. Georgia Rice, who has cared for her father and two siblings since her mother's death, is diagnosed, at 19, with tuberculosis and sent away to a sanitarium. Freed from the burdens of caretaking, she discovers a nearly lost world of youth and possibility, and meets the doomed young man who will become her lover.

Vermont, the present. On the heels of a divorce, Catherine Hubbard, Georgia's granddaughter, takes up residence in Georgia's old house. Sorting through her own affairs, Cath stumbles upon the true story of Georgia's life and marriage, and the misunderstanding upon which she built a lifelong love.

In the stories of these two women -- linked by bitter disappointments, compromise, and powerful grace -- Sue Miller offers us a novel of astonishing richness and emotional depth. The World Below captures the shadowy half-truths of the visible world, and the beauty and sorrow submerged beneath the surfaces of our lives -- the lost world of the past, our lost hopes for the future. An extraordinary novel from one of our finest storytellers.