In November 1944, eighteen-year-old June Walker boards an unmarked bus, destined for a city that doesn’t officially exist. “What you see here, what you hear here, what you do here, let it stay here.” 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.

When the bombing of Hiroshima brings the truth about Oak Ridge into devastating focus, June must confront her ideals about loyalty, patriotism, and war itself. But a breach in security will intertwine his fate with June’s search for answers. Across town, African-American construction worker Joe Brewer knows nothing of the government’s plans, only that his new job pays enough to make it worth leaving his family behind, at least for now. June longs to know more about their top-secret assignment and begins an affair with Sam Cantor, the young Jewish physicist from New York who oversees the lab where she works and understands the end goal only too well, while her beautiful roommate Cici is on her own mission: to find a wealthy husband and escape her sharecropper roots. The girls spend their evenings socializing and flirting with soldiers, scientists, and workmen at dances and movies, bowling alleys and canteens. They know they are helping to win the war, but must ask no questions and reveal nothing to outsiders. There, June joins hundreds of other young girls operating massive machines whose purpose is never explained. Oak Ridge, Tennessee has sprung up in a matter of months-a town of trailers and segregated houses, 24-hour cafeterias, and constant security checks. In the bestselling tradition of Hidden Figures and The Wives of Los Alamos, comes this riveting novel of the everyday people who worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. ' The Atomic City Girls is a fascinating and compelling novel about a little-known piece of WWII history.'-Maggie Leffler, international bestselling author of The Secrets of Flight

The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard