Family Acts by Louise Shaffer

Katie Harder is a writer in New York for a soap opera on which her late mother, Rosalind, made her career. In Los Angeles, Randa Jennings lives with her eleven-year-old daughter, Susie, and is a manager for various actors. These two women’s lives intersect in the small southern town of Massonville Georgia when they inherit a theater called the Venable Opera House. The theater is in great disrepair and the women are not even sure why they are the ones being given the building. Katie and Randa both were raised by single parents and had no other family, so it’s entirely possible that they are somehow related. The novel traces the history of the theater to its beginnings in the late 1800’s up until the 1970’s when it closed. The flashbacks are interspersed with Katie's and Randa's story of trying to find out the mysteries behind the theater and whether they should keep it. Shaffer’s novel makes for an enjoyable and easy read.