What I'm Reading: Under the Wide and Starry Sky

Under the Wide and Starry Sky
by Nancy Horan
Ballantine (Jan. 14, 2014)
Historical Fiction

What It's About:

Nancy Horan chronicles the unconventional love affair of Scottish literary giant Robert Louis Stevenson, author of classics including Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and American divorcee Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne. They meet in rural France in 1875, when Fanny, having run away from her philandering husband back in California, takes refuge there with her children. Stevenson too is escaping from his life, running from family pressure to become a lawyer.

Why You'll Love It:

• Once again Horan has focused on a hugely famous man whose dramatic personal story is almost unknown. The novel portrays Louis and Fanny’s tumultuous life together, through difficult years of thwarted love and illness, intense happiness and worldly success.
• The evocative settings include Paris and rural France, London, Edinburgh, Switzerland, the Adirondacks, Monterey, San Francisco, Sydney, and ships and islands in the South Pacific.
• Like Loving Frank’s Mamah, Fanny was a pioneer of her time. Her actions—and their consequences—will spark lively book club discussion. Book groups will also love to discuss. 

What Else You Should Read:

• Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
• In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson