As a child, Julie dreamed of being somewhere else, of making a difference. Now, she can't wait to meet the nuns she will live with and the children she will provide physiotherapy for in Ethiopia. But Julie has trouble sticking to convent rules and soon finds herself wondering how much difference a single physio can make anyway. When she takes a teaching role at a university, Julie finally feels closer to fulfilling her dreams – training Ethiopia's first physiotherapists, treating paediatric patients, and losing her heart to a handsome colleague. Then civil unrest reaches the university, forcing Julie's students to choose between their safety and their future. When it comes to being a part of change, why do all steps feel like small steps?

"Von Drehle has chosen a critical year ('the most eventful year in American history' and the year Lincoln rose to greatness), done his homework, and written a spirited account."N"Publishers Weekly."

Giant in the Shadows is the definitive biography of Robert T. Lincoln (1843-1926), the oldest son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln and their only child to live past age eighteen. Emerson, after nearly ten years of research, draws upon previously unavailable materials to cover Robert Lincoln's entire life in detail.