Ladies' Lending Library

In the tradition of "The Ya-Ya Sisterhood" and "Steel Magnolias", "The Ladies Lending Library" is a bittersweet tale of mothers, daughters, friends and lovers across the long, languorous summer of 1963: a summer of innocence and discovery, understanding and belonging. Sonia Martyn and her four daughters have gathered with others from Toronto's Ukrainian community for their annual end-of-season party in Kalyna Beach on Lake Ontario. With their husbands away in the city all week, the women's days are ruled by the rhythms of children and chores, enlivened by the 'racy' books they trade amongst themselves and by their Friday afternoon gatherings for gin and gossip. But their tightly bound world is straining with its own dramas and secrets. Sonia, a former fashion model, mourns the death of her mother and fights with her difficult eldest daughter. Elusive Nadia, the wife of a millionaire, longs for a life she cannot have. Sharp-tongued, sophisticated Sasha plays a dangerous game as she both challenges and shores up the traditions of the community and its defining values. And for teenage Laura, her sisters and their friends, the rifts and fissures that threaten the once-impregnable 'world of the mothers' prompt a startling series of betrayals and discoveries. For this is the summer when everything will change for the girls and women of Kalyna Beach, as innocence gives way to a sense of larger possibilities open to them all.