On the surface, the main characters of “The Chambermaid’s Key” are two young women separated by 100 years, each trying to find meaning, love, and a bright future in similar ways. However, there’s arguably also a third heroine at play: an opulent hotel in Canada’s biggest city inspired by a real-life landmark.
Author Genevieve Graham’s dual-timeline novel opens in 1929 Toronto with 17-year-old Roisin “Rosie” Ryan, an Irish Canadian girl living in The Ward, a poor immigrant area of the city. Her mother is long dead, her father is laying carpet in a Montreal hotel, her twin brothers pick pockets between rare visits home, and her granny is ailing but still feisty.
