Zärtlich, bewegend, unwiderstehlich
Was sagt man dem Menschen, den man am meisten liebt und den man am tiefsten verletzt hat? Dieser Frage muss sich Meg stellen, als sie ihrer Jugendliebe Carson nach sechzehn Jahren wieder begegnet. Denn Carson weiß weder, weshalb sie ihn damals verließ, noch, dass er Vater einer fünfzehnjährigen Tochter ist. Meg aber weiß inzwischen ganz genau, dass ihr Lebensplan deshalb nicht aufgegangen ist, weil sie tief in ihrem Herzen nie aufgehört hat, Carson zu lieben. Aber bedeutet Liebe in diesem Fall nicht, dass sie an alten Wunden nicht noch einmal rühren darf – zumal Carson kurz vor seiner eigenen Hochzeit steht?
Eine große Liebe, eine lange Trennung und das Glück der zweiten Chance.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'A glittering depiction of a woman ahead of her time who absolutely refused to be second best' Red Alva Smith, her Southern family destitute after the Civil War, marries into one of America's great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York's old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designs and builds nine mansions, hosts grand balls, and arranges for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defies convention for women of the time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement. With a nod to Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, bestselling author Therese Anne Fowler paints a glittering world of enormous wealth contrasted with desperate poverty, of social ambition and social scorn, of friendship and betrayal, and an unforgettable story of a remarkable woman. 'A very lively read' Independent 'A pacy, elegant novel' Mail on Sunday 'Wholly absorbing' Stylist 'Like Gossip Girl minus more than a century' The Skimm 'Enthralling' Good Housekeeping ----------------------------------- *PRAISE FOR Z: A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD, A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER* 'Brilliant. Read it, read it, read it' Daily Mail 'Superb' Independent on Sunday 'Utterly compulsive reading' Stylist 'A treat' Sunday Times
I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we’re ruined, Look closer…and you’ll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed. When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the “ungettable” Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn’t wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner’s, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and take the rest as it comes. What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein. Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby’s parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott’s, too? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda’s irresistible story as she herself might have told it.
Therese Anne Fowler's It All Comes Down to This is a warm, keenly perceptive novel of sisterhood, heartbreak, home, and what it takes to remake a life at its halfway point, for fans of Ann Patchett and Emma Straub. Meet the Geller sisters: Beck, Claire, and Sophie, a trio of strong-minded women whose pragmatic, widowed mother, Marti, will be dying soon and taking her secrets with her. Marti has ensured that her modest estate is easy for her family to deal with once she's gone--including a provision that the family's summer cottage on Mount Desert Island, Maine, must be sold, the proceeds split equally between the three girls. Beck, the eldest, is a freelance journalist whose marriage looks more like a sibling bond than a passionate partnership. In fact, her husband Paul is hiding a troubling truth about his love life. For Beck, the Maine cottage has been essential to her secret wish to write a novel--and to remake the terms of her relationship. Despite her accomplishments as a pediatric cardiologist, Claire, the middle daughter, has always felt like the Geller misfit. Recently divorced, Claire's secret unrequited love for the wrong man is slowly destroying her, and she's finding that her expertise on matters of the heart unfortunately doesn't extend to her own. Youngest daughter Sophie appears to live an Instagram-ready life, filled with glamorous work and travel, celebrities, fashion, art, and sex. In reality, her existence is a cash-strapped house of cards that may crash at any moment. Enter C.J. Reynolds, an enigmatic southerner ex-con with his own hidden past, who complicates the situation. All is not what it seems, and everything is about to change.
Alva Smithová a její sestry přicházejí na konci 19. století do New Yorku s jediným majetkem – dobrým jménem. Seznámí se s Williamem Vanderbiltem, z jehož rodiny pochází velké jmění, avšak newyorská smetánka je mezi zbohatlíky nepřijímá. Alva se za něj provdá s cílem zajistit rodině prestiž. Svůj cíl splní, když dostane Vanderbiltovy mezi „horních 400“ a dokonce překoná paní Astorovou, královnu společnosti. S pomocí rodinného jmění se zasazuje o výstavbu významných budov v New Yorku a Newportu, a zakládá Metropolitní operu poté, co jí je upřeno pronajmout si lóži v Akademii umění.
Rodinný život Alvy a Williama však není tak zářivý. Po zjištění manželovy nevěry s její nejlepší přítelkyní se rozhodne pro radikální krok a požádá o rozvod, což je v té době šokující a riskantní rozhodnutí. Alva nakonec vychází z této bitvy vítězně a znovu se vdává za Olivera Belmonta, přítele svého bývalého manžela. Její inteligence a odhodlání ji vedou k aktivnímu zapojení do hnutí sufražetek, kde se zasazuje o volební právo žen. Příběh zachycuje nejen výjimečnou ženu, ale i energii New Yorku a Paříže během Pozlaceného věku, ukazuje, jak se Alva nenechala utlačovat dobou, ale raději ji měnila.
Mecenáška, vizionářka, bojovnice za ženská práva, a především sebevědomá žena, která se nenechala svázat konvencemi. To byla Alva, žena, která založila mimo jiné Metropolitní operu a požádala o rozvod, když odhalila manželovu nevěru. To vše na pozadí bouřlivě se rozvíjejícího New Yorku během tzv. Pozlaceného věku přelomu 19. a 20. století.
Elle a 17 ans, c'est une belle du Sud, petite dernière d'une famille bourgeoise de Montgomery, exubérante et fantasque. Quand elle le rencontre lors d'un bal, il a 21 ans, porte l'uniforme et veut vivre de sa plume. Bravant les conventions, elle part l'épouser à New York, quelques jours après la sortie de son premier roman, L'Envers du Paradis. Le livre est un immense succès, et les deux amoureux deviennent instantanément célèbres, propulsés dans un tourbillon de fêtes effrénées entre Long Island, Paris et la Riviera française. Elle, c'est Zelda ; lui, c'est Scott : ils viennent d'entrer dans la légende. Mais l'insouciance de la vie mondaine, les dépenses folles et les flots de champagne détruisent l'harmonie du couple. Tandis que Scott sombre dans l'alcoolisme, la délaisse et l'accuse de tous les maux, Zelda lutte corps et âme pour exister. Ecriture, peinture, danse, elle cherchera éperdument son identité jusqu'à en perdre la raison et disparaîtra de façon tragique dans l'incendie de son dernier asile. Toute sa vie, elle sera restée dans l'ombre de l'homme qu'elle a aimé à la folie. Ce roman lui rend enfin sa voix.
