Maggie-Now: A Novel

Betty Smith, the beloved author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, weaves a riveting modern myth out of the experiences of her own life in this rediscovered classic.

In Brooklyn's unforgiving urban jungle, Maggie Moore is torn between answering her own needs and catering to the desirous men who dominate her life. Confronted by her quarrelsome Irish immigrant father, the feckless lover who may become her husband, and others, Maggie must learn to navigate a cycle of loss, separation, and hope as she forges her own path toward happiness.

With characteristic warmth, compelling insight, and easy, conversational prose, Betty Smith's Maggie-Now poignantly illuminates one woman's struggles and successes as she grapples with timeless questions of desire, duty, self-sacrifice, and the quest for fulfillment. Maggie-Now is an unforgettable masterpiece from one of the twentieth century's greatest talents.

“Betty Smith has written a solid and sincere book in Maggie-Now. Once more as in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn she gives us a fine assemblage of characters and incidents out of the rich creative remembrance and imaginings of her own life.” - Paul Green, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of In Abraham’s Bosom

“Written with such unobtrusive skill that it seems to flow along as naturally as life itself. . . . Its picture of Irish immigrant life in Brooklyn is filled with the exact details that alone can insure conviction and interest. And because Miss Smith is an artist these details are distributed with a judicious hand so that Maggie-Now never is swamped with social documentation in the manner of many novels about urban slums.” - New York Times