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From the acclaimed author
of Anya and The
Madness of a Seduced Woman--a spellbinding novel that projects
the interwoven lives, the yearnings and dreams, of two extraordinary women
bound together by the deepest friendship. |
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One is a star--the most beautiful,
most mysterious film star of them all. She is the Scandinavian legend and
enigma Anna Asta, the woman who reigned supreme in the 1920s and '30s, when
her pale fire commanded an admiration bordering on worship. The other, unknown
to the world, is Anna's housekeeper for two decades, Ivy Cook, whose rich,
golden warmth reflects the perpetual summertime of her native Caribbean island,
and who has become of first importance to Anna, as Anna is to her.
Superbly told, crowded with all manner of fascinating people, rich in the
exotic details of two wonderlands--the Caribbean Green Island and
Hollywood--First Nights is a novel about private lives and public
facades. It is about the unexpected friendships that save us when we have
given up hope of being saved, and about how little we know our own lives
even as we live them. Above all, First Nights is a powerful and moving
testament to the human need for meaning, for finding at last the true and
empowering story at the center of one's life. |
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"A spellbinding novel...From Green Island, where ghosts count
grains of salt...to a Hollywood long gone, to frozen European winters, Susan
Fromberg Schaeffer charts the lives of two women...Here is one of our best
story telrs weaving and brilliant and beautiful tale."
Alice Hoffman
"Ravishingly well written and original."
Thomas McGuane
"The wisdom and insight, te wit and charm, the inherently human qualities
of a most unusual, most beautiful novel."
Belva Plain, The Washington Post
"A luminous, fascinating contemplation of creativity and fame, love and lust,
truth, story, and life itself."
Booklist
"Wise and moving... Susan Fromberg Schaeffer explores the realities of glamour,
the nuances of public life, and the implications of fame. It is love that
is her subject, though--the loves of a movie idol, the love between two
unforgettable women. What begins for the reader as a black-and-white flickering
on the movie screen becomes a wise and moving meditation, in Rembrandt's
burnished dark tones, on the truths of personal history."
Frederick Bush
"It is beautifully and gracefully written...We come to know both women
intimately...The equally exotic worlds of Green Island and early Hollywood
are rendered with skill, and the large supporting cast is lively and
exciting."
The New York Times Book Review
"A literary writerof a philosophical bent who cares for the sound as well
as th sense of words, and she brings her seriousess, meticulousess and
inteligence to First Nights."
Susan Isaacs, The Chicago Tribune |
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