Coming February 24, 2026
The Choir
In a world that wants to silence them, one group of women dares to sing.
By Carol M. Cram
In the dreary streets of 1890s Briarstown, a fictional Yorkshire mill town, Eliza Kingwell fights to survive in a home filled with hardship. When a devastating loss crushes her plan to escape with her five daughters, she turns to an unlikely lifeline: a local singing competition. With nothing left to lose, she gathers a feisty group of working-class women to form a choir—and sets her sights on a cash prize that could change her life forever.
Meanwhile, Ruth Henton—once Eliza’s best friend and now a star on the London stage—is disgraced by scandal and must find new purpose and redemption. As fate would have it, Ruth becomes a judge in the very competition Eliza needs to win.
While Eliza’s choir trains for its chance at glory, secrets simmer, friendships deepen, and long-buried wounds surface. In a time and place where women’s voices are too often ignored, The Choir is a triumphant story of music, sisterhood, and reclaiming power.
Perfect for fans of Jennifer Chiaverini, Tracy Chevalier and Pip Williams, The Choir is a stirring, beautifully written novel that celebrates the strength of women who dare to rise—and sing.
Advance Praise
“Carol Cram’s The Choir is a charming tale of two working-class women in Victorian England, whose love of singing helps each surmount trials in the nurturing space of a choir. Cram brings to life the transformative power of music and the resilience of the human spirit. Anyone who has sung in a choir knows how it can foster a sense of community and mutual encouragement, just as these two women did. The Choir is an empowering story about reclaiming one’s own voice.”
–Nancy Burkhalter, author of The Education of Delhomme
"Completely absorbing! We care so much about these two young Englishwomen in 1897 struggling up from poverty and loveless lives by the power of friendship and music. I cheered for them on every page of The Choir and read enraptured to the end in the small hours of the morning."
–Stephanie Cowell, author of The Man in the Stone Cottage: a novel of the Brontë Sisters and The Boy in the Rain, American Book Award recipient
“A stirring exploration of how music can mend broken spirits and how women, when lifting each other up, create a harmony stronger than any single voice. Eliza and Ruth's intersecting lives in the late 1890s come alive vividly on the page, with every detail showcasing the depth of research Cram used in creating the novel. The Choir shines with themes of resilience, friendship, and hope.”
–Eliza Knight, USA Today bestselling author of Starring Adele Astaire
“Two women wrestle with life’s unexpected turns in Carol M. Cram’s absorbing new novel, The Choir. Ruth is a “professional beauty” and singing star of the London stage. Her childhood friend Eliza has left her love of singing in the past as she navigates motherhood and a brutal marriage in an English mining town. Reunited after years apart, the women’s past and deep connections are revealed. Through shifts of fortune, these characters come together over the music that once united them. Cram’s engaging novel is a testament to female resilience, friendship, and the power of song.”
–Judith Lindbergh, author of Akmaral and The Thrall’s Tale
"The Choir is a poignant, fascinating, page-turning tale. Carol Cram's prose is beautifully descriptive and her characters are compellingly rendered. This impeccably researched novel will take you on a heartfelt, sometimes painful, but ultimately uplifting journey that brims with emotion and joyous musicality. Highly recommended!"
—Syrie James, bestselling author of The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen, The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, and The Mysteries of Pendowar Hall
“Bound by hardship and divided by loss, two former friends discover resilience and reconciliation through music. In her beautifully wrought novel, The Choir, set in 1890s England, Carol M. Cram deftly composes a lyrical portrait of courage, forgiveness, and the redemptive power of music. This story is rich with history and heart, and will remain with you like a favorite song.”
—Herb Williams-Dalgart, author of Jingle Boys and The French Girl’s War
Carol M. Cram is the award-winning author of the Women in the Arts Trilogy (The Towers of Tuscany, A Woman of Note, and The Muse of Fire), the contemporary novel Love Among the Recipes (which received a Publishers Weekly Starred Review), and her forthcoming historical novel The Choir. She also hosts the Art In Fiction Podcast, where she interviews authors who write novels inspired by the arts, and writes a travel blog called The Artsy Traveler.
Before becoming a full-time novelist, podcaster, and blogger, Carol authored over sixty bestselling textbooks in computer applications and business communications for Cengage Learning and Houghton Mifflin. She holds an MA in Drama and an MBA, and taught for many years on the faculty at Capilano University. She lives on Bowen Island near Vancouver, Canada with her husband, visual artist Gregg Simpson.