Most Popular Books by Nancy Horan

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The House of Lincoln, an “enthralling” novel that brings “the buried truths of the ill-starred relationship of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright to light” (The New York Times Book Review). “Masterful.”—People “A fascinating love story.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Truly artful fiction.”—The New York Times “I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.” So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably to this novel’s stunning conclusion. Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story. Winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction • One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor

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 From the New York Times bestselling author of Loving Frank comes a 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 imagined [novel] 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 perfect example of what a man and a woman will do for love, and what they can accomplish when it’s meant to be.”—Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Horan’s prose is gorgeous enough to keep a reader transfixed, even if the story itself weren’t so compelling. I kept re-reading passages just to savor the exquisite wordplay. . . . Few writers are as masterful as she is at blending carefully researched history with the novelist’s art.”—The Dallas Morning News “A classic artistic bildungsroman and a retort to the genre, a novel that shows how love and marriage can simultaneously offer inspiration and encumbrance.”—The New York Times Book Review

This new deluxe eBook edition features more than sixty-five additional pages of exclusive, author-approved annotations throughout the text to enrich your reading experience. You can access the eBook annotations with a simple click or tap on your eReader via the convenient links. Access them as you read the novel or as supplemental material after finishing the entire story. There is also Random House Reader’s Circle bonus content, which is sure to inspire discussion at book clubs everywhere. “A transforming drama . . . truly artful fiction.”—The New York Times “I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.” So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she tries to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives. “A beautifully orchestrated rendering of the affair and the inner lives of two love-torn principals. Understated yet dramatic, painstaking and convincing, this is fiction with the heft of truth."—Seattle Post-Intelligencer “In Mamah, Horan creates an unforgettably complex heroine.”—The Washington Post “A staggering read, a complex tale of the love affair between two eccentric, intelligent and unforgettable characters. Though it is very much a literary novel, sparks fly off the page.”—Rocky Mountain News

La larga historia de amor entre Frank Lloyd Wright, una figura imposible y fascinante, y Mamah una mujer casada a quien Wright seduce, más allá de las limitaciones de lo convencional. En 1903, Edwin y Mamah Cheney encargan la construcción de su casa a Frank Lloyd Wright, un renombrado arquitecto que luego se convertiría en uno de los mayores talentos de la arquitectura contemporánea, autor de la célebre Casa de la Cascada y del Museo Guggenheim de Nueva York. Desde el principio, Mamah se siente atraída por su carisma, y también Frank parece disfrutar de su compañía. Al cabo de unos años, vuelven a encontrarse y se embarcan en un viaje que conmocionará a la sociedad de Chicago y cambiará para siempre sus vidas. A partir de una minuciosa investigación, Nancy Horan retrata los Estados Unidos de la época y la Europa de las vanguardias, la controvertida personalidad de Frank Lloyd Wright y la lucha de Mamah Cheney, una mujerobligada a elegir entre los roles de madre, esposa, amante e intelectual, que supo abrazar el feminismo y también ponerlo en tela de juicio. Amar a Frank ha sido best-seller en Estados Unidos y ha recibido las críticas más elogiosas. La crítica ha dicho... «Un drama conmovedor... Amar a Frank humaniza a sus personajes principales con tanto éxito que aquello que hace que Frank y Mamah rompan sus respectivos vínculos familiares deja de parecer un misterio... Una virtuosa narración.» The New York Time «Horan ha representado a Mamah Borthwick Cheney como el enigmático arquetipo de todas las mujeres; un símbolo de las libertades que ellas quisieran tener y, a la vez, de las consecuencias que les esperan cuando tratan de asumirlas.» The New York Times Book Review «Esta elegante primera novela de Horan narra la larga historia de amor entre Frank Lloyd Wright, una figura imposible y fascinante, y Mamah Cheney, una mujer casada a quien Wright seduce, más allá de las limitaciones de lo convencional. Una lectura absorbente y provocativa.» Scott Turow «Admiro esta novela, la adoro por muchas razones. Por su inteligencia y por el lirismo de su prosa. Por la atención a los detalles de la época. Por las proporciones épicas de esta fascinante historia de amor. Mamah Cheney ha estado en mi mente, en mi corazón y en mi alma desde que leí este libro, y dudo que me abandone.» Elizabeth Berg «Amar a Frank es una de esas novelas que te saca de tu vida. Hipnótica y fascinante, está llena de complejos personajes, profundas pasiones, descripciones sutiles de asombrosa arquitectura y, por supuesto, de todo el colorido de la apremiante vida corriente de hace ya cien años.» Lauren Belfer

San Francisco, à l’aube du XXe siècle. À 35 ans, Fanny Osbourne décide de quitter son mari infidèle et de partir pour l’Europe avec ses trois enfants. Elle veut se donner une chance de tout recommencer en suivant ses propres envies à une époque où une femme doit rester à la place que la société veut bien lui concéder. Mais, à son arrivée, la tragédie frappe et Fanny doit trouver refuge dans une communauté d''artistes en France. C’est là qu’elle rencontre Robert Louis Stevenson, de dix ans son cadet et qui n’est pas encore devenu le célèbre écrivain de L’île au trésor. Tous deux se lancent à corps perdu dans une relation féroce, un amour qui va durer toute une vie, contre vents et marées. Une aventure passionnée et imprévisible bravant tous les interdits... Une formidable histoire d’amour, de passion et d’émancipation.

For as long as she can remember, Ana has been an outsider. Her refugee family settled in 1860s Springfield, Illinois, in the enclave of Little Madeira, where Portuguese rolls off the tongue and porches are full of neighbors and children. A bustling state capital thick with runaway slaves and the slave catchers that follow them, Springfield is also home to a rising politician named Abraham Lincoln.It is in the Lincoln home that Ana finds employment as Saturday girl and household help, working directly for Mary Lincoln in a front-row seat to historic societal changes that will reshape not only Springfield, but an entire country.

Casada, mãe de dois filhos, Martha ''Mamah'' Borthwick Cheney sempre foi uma mulher à frente do seu tempo. Partidária do feminismo, lutou pela igualdade entre homens e mulheres no trabalho e, sobretudo, nos direitos civis. Foi sua coragem, porém, em deixar a família por conta de um amor fulminante para vivê-lo em sua plenitude que chocou a conservadora sociedade de Chicago uma década antes da Primeira Guerra Mundial. Com base em anos de pesquisa, a jornalista Nancy Horan retrata, em ''Arquitetura de um sonho - o romance de Frank Lloyd'' Wright, os conflitos e as batalhas de Mamah.

Fact and fiction blend in a historical novel that chronicles the relationship between seminal architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney, from their meeting, when they were each married to another, to the clandestine affair that shocked Chicago society.