Becoming Madam Secretary

Stephanie Dray's novel follows Frances Perkins, an American heroine raised on stories of her revolutionary ancestors. Arriving in New York City at the turn of the century, she works with children in the tenements of Hell's Kitchen while also participating in Greenwich Village's social scene, where she befriends politicians, artists, and activists including Mary Harriman Rumsey, Sinclair Lewis, and reformer Paul Wilson, with whom she falls in love. When Frances meets a young lawyer named Franklin Delano Roosevelt at a tea dance, their initial impression of each other is unfavorable—she views him as an arrogant dilettante, while he sees her as a priggish do-gooder. Over the next twenty years, however, they form a historic partnership that brings them both to the White House. Frances rises in a male-dominated political world, becoming FDR's most trusted lieutenant during the Great Depression. She navigates the competing demands of public career, marriage, and motherhood while facing political attacks and personal tragedies. Ultimately, she must determine what she is willing to do and sacrifice to save the nation.