For readers of The Paris Wife and The Swans of Fifth Avenue comes
a "sensuous, captivating account of a forbidden affair between two
women" (People)--Eleanor Roosevelt and "first friend" Lorena Hickok.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Financial Times - San
Francisco Chronicle - New York Public Library - Refinery29 - Real
Simple
Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on
Franklin Roosevelt's first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse
than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent
woman reporter in America, "Hick," as she's known to her friends and
admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician
Eleanor. But then, as her connection with the future first lady deepens
into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting
love, and a life that Hick never expected to have. She moves into the
White House, where her status as "first friend" is an open secret, as
are FDR's own lovers. After she takes a job in the Roosevelt
administration, promoting and protecting both Roosevelts, she comes to
know Franklin not only as a great president but as a complicated rival
and an irresistible friend, capable of changing lives even after his
death. Through it all, even as Hick's bond with Eleanor is tested by
forces both extraordinary and common, and as she grows as a woman and a
writer, she never loses sight of the love of her life.
From Washington, D.C. to Hyde Park, from a little white house on Long
Island to an apartment on Manhattan's Washington Square, Amy Bloom's new
novel moves elegantly through fascinating places and times, written in
compelling prose and with emotional depth, wit, and acuity.
Praise for White Houses
"Amy Bloom brings an untold slice of history so dazzlingly and
devastatingly to life, it took my breath away."--Paula McLain, author
of The Paris Wife
"Vivid and tender . . . Bloom--interweaving fact and fancy--lavishes
attention on [Hickok], bringing Hick, the novel's narrator and true
subject, to radiant life."--O: The Oprah Magazine
"Radiant . . . an indelible love story, one propelled not by unlined
youth and beauty but by the kind of soul-mate connection even distance,
age, and impossible circumstances couldn't dim . . . Bloom's goal is
less to relitigate history than to portray the blandly sexless
figurehead of First Lady as something the job rarely allows those women
to be--a loving, breathing human being. And she does it
brilliantly."--Entertainment Weekly
