by Nancy Horan
First published 2007
Mamah Cheney stands at her Oak Park window, watching her children play in the yard she may never see again. The mother of two has fallen deeply in love with Frank Lloyd Wright, the brilliant architect designing her family's new home. Wright promises her a life of intellectual freedom and artistic passion, but pursuing it means abandoning everything she has known. Mamah must choose between the security of her conventional marriage to Edwin Cheney and a scandalous affair that will destroy her reputation and tear her from her children. As she and Wright flee to Europe and later to his Wisconsin estate Taliesin, Mamah discovers that love extracted such a price demands constant courage. She faces social ostracism, legal battles, and the anguish of separation from her son and daughter. The relationship that began as liberation becomes a test of how much sacrifice true partnership requires.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: forbidden-love, scandal
Setting: Oak Park, Taliesin, Europe
Period: 20th-century
363 pages · Unknown Binding · Ballantine Books