A beautiful, transporting coming-of-age story set in Brooklyn Heights during World War II and beyond-about mothers and daughters, transgressions, and the secrets of a family-for readers of THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES and THE RULES OF CIVILITY.

Growing up in Brooklyn Heights in the days of food rations, blackouts, and absent fathers, Wally Baker is raised as much by her grandparents' black maid, Loretta, as by her mother, the unstable but dazzling Stella. More interested in the latest adventures of Wonder Woman and the ants she excavated from the backyard of her grandparents' brownstone than in dresses or needlepoint or manners, she has her suspicions about Mr. Niederman, the boarder (or spy, she thinks) who has taken the place of her father, a naval officer, in her home --- and, it seems, by her mother's side. Then, a sudden tragedy on V-J Day alters the course of Wally's life forever, raising questions about her mother's past, and family secrets, that the inquisitive young girl, and then young woman, can't ignore. In WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG, Elizabeth Gaffney has crafted an immersive, beautiful novel about mothers and daughters, servants and masters, the secrets that divide and the love that keeps us together.