Under the Wide and Starry Sky: A Novel,Used

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST AND ST. LOUIS POSTDISPATCHFrom Nancy Horan, New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank, comes her muchanticipated second novel, which tells the improbable love story of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American wife, Fanny.At the age of thirtyfive, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgiumwith her three children and nanny in towto study art. It is a chance for this adventurous woman to start over, to make a better life for all of them, and to pursue her own desires. Not long after her arrival, however, tragedy strikes, and Fanny and her children repair to a quiet artists colony in France where she can recuperate. Emerging from a deep sorrow, she meets a lively Scot, Robert Louis Stevenson, ten years her junior, who falls instantly in love with the earthy, independent, and opinionated belle Americaine.Fanny does not immediately take to the slender young lawyer who longs to devote his life to writingand who would eventually pen such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In time, though, she succumbs to Stevensons charms, and the two begin a fierce love affairmarked by intense joy and harrowing darknessthat spans the decades and the globe. The shared life of these two strongwilled individuals unfolds into an adventure as impassioned and unpredictable as any of Stevensons own unforgettable tales.Praise for Under the Wide and Starry SkyA richly imagined [novel] of love, laughter, pain and sacrifice . . . [Fanny Osbourne] kidnapped Robert Louis Stevensons heart.USA TodayPowerful . . . flawless . . . a perfect example of what a man and a woman will do for love, and what they can accomplish when its meant to be.Fort Worth StarTelegramSpectacular . . . an exhilarating epic about a freespirited couple who traveled the world yet found home only in one another.Booklist (starred review)Horans prose is gorgeous enough to keep a reader transfixed, even if the story itself werent so compelling. I kept rereading passages just to savor the exquisite wordplay. . . . Few writers are as masterful as she is at blending carefully researched history with the novelists art.The Dallas Morning NewsA classic artistic bildungsroman and a retort to the genre, a novel that shows how love and marriage can simultaneously offer inspiration and encumbrance.The New York Times Book ReviewNancy Horan has done it again, capturing the entwined lives of Fanny Osbourne and Robert Louis Stevenson so uncannily, it reads like truth.Sarah Blake, author of The PostmistressHoran has a distinct knack for evoking the rich, complicated lives of longgone artists and the women who inspired them.Entertainment WeeklyFanny and Louis are wildhearted seekers, and Nancy Horan traces their incredible journey fearlessly, plunging us through decades, farflung continents, and chilling brushes with death. Ambitious and often breathtaking, this sweeping story spills over with spirited, uncompromising life.Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife