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The Trunk

Simone Adan is living a lie.

Engaged to a man she doesn’t love and disillusioned with the hand that fate has dealt her, she knows she was meant for something more. Then, one day, everything changes when she stumbles into a magical antique shop and comes across an old steamer trunk. Adorned with faded stickers of its past travels—Madrid, Africa, Italy, Morocco—the trunk’s timeless beauty is matched only by the mystery of its origins. When Simone buys the trunk and has it shipped to her home in Chicago, she has no way of knowing the extraordinary chain of events she has set into play.

Meanwhile, one hundred years ago in 1923 New York, Vivian Oliver is on a similar journey. A brilliant anthropologist, college professor, and frequent party girl, Vivian decides she wants more out of life than champagne socials and one-night stands with beautiful women. Accepting a position on an archaeological dig in Kenya, she is determined to build a new future for herself. But on the way to Africa, Vivian’s cherished steamer trunk disappears—taking with it her clothing, her dig tools, and her private journals—only to resurface a century later in a faraway place.

Through a series of inexplicable dreams, and drawn together by the enigmatic trunk, Simone and Vivian meet. Each is trapped in their own timeline—Simone in 2023, and Vivian in 1923—but despite the hundred-year barrier between them, they forge a bond strong enough to bridge the gap across time and space . . . changing their destinies forever.
"C.M. Castillo has done it again! As only a true storyteller can do, in her second novel, "The Trunk", she will transport you to a place in your soul where beauty, love, and wonderment abound during an astounding journey where two worlds ultimately connect by way of a mystical steamer trunk." 
- P. Laff
 "The Pages of Adeena" was absolutely beautiful.
​A truly enchanting story."
- Anonymous