Under the Wide and Starry Sky, Paperback

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""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"" ""Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader s Circle for author chats and more."" From Nancy Horan, ""New York Times"" bestselling author of ""Loving Frank, "" comes her 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 imaginednovel] 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 p