Victor Sondheim

It is a saga of life from 1933 til 1937. The Sinclair family, prosperous bankers from Beulah Iowa were ruined by the Great Depressions and banking collapse, causing the father to commit suicide.

Each of the children must set out to "find their way" in the world of economic devastation." One son ends up as a journalist in Hitler's Germany then Stalin's Russia; another son makes it through West Point and is stationed in in China on the eve of the Manchurian invasion; the oldest son forced to show more leave laws school uses his smarts and charm to become a rising official in the Roosevelt administration; the youngest child, a sister, flees here abusive relative's home to become a tragic displaced victim of the Dust Bowl; while the older sister makes it Washington DC and with the aid of her brother and her own skills obtains a position with the Congressional staff, and obtains social connections.

The story ends with the second inauguration of FDR in 1937, but is clearly intended to be continued in a follow-up novel. The author apparently penned a second manuscript (Swimmers in the Tide) but it was never published. See DonaldMoffitt.com show less

Big book, big story. How a family in America, Deep South if I remember correctly, with five/six kids, cope with the fall-out of the last American financial crash, so could be set in current time!
(Sorry i read it a long time ago and I can't remember how many kids in the family, Doh.) However, this story has stayed with me. I am looking for a copy so I can re-read it again. Should be made into a film, or at least a Tv series