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 POST-DISPATCH
From the New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank comes a
much-anticipated second novel, which tells the improbable love story of
Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his tempestuous American
wife, Fanny.
At the age of thirty-five, Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has left her
philandering husband in San Francisco to set sail for Belgium--with her
three children and nanny in tow--to 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 writing--and 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 Stevenson's charms, and the two begin a
fierce love affair--marked by intense joy and harrowing darkness--that
spans the decades and the globe. The shared life of these two
strong-willed individuals unfolds into an adventure as impassioned and
unpredictable as any of Stevenson's own unforgettable tales.
Praise for Under the Wide and Starry Sky
"A richly imagined [novel] of love, laughter, pain and sacrifice . . .
Under the Wide and Starry Sky is a dual portrait, with Louis and Fanny
sharing the limelight in the best spirit of teamwork--a romantic
partnership."--USA Today
"Powerful . . . flawless . . . a perfect example of what a man and a
woman will do for love, and what they can accomplish when it's meant to
be."**--*Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"Horan's prose is gorgeous enough to keep a reader transfixed, even if
the story itself weren't so compelling. I kept re-reading passages just
to savor the exquisite wordplay. . . . Few writers are as masterful as
she is at blending carefully researched history with the novelist's
art."--The Dallas Morning News
"A 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 Review
