From bestselling author Anita Shreve: an epic story, set against the backdrop of World War I, of a woman searching for the secret of her identity
Hauled in a cart to a field hospital in northern France in March 1916, an American woman wakes from unconsciousness to the smell of gas gangrene, the sounds of men in pain, and an almost complete loss of memory: she knows only that she can drive an ambulance, she can draw, and her name is Stella Bain.
A stateless woman in a lawless country, Stella embarks on a journey to reconstruct her life. Suffering an agonising and inexplicable array of symptoms, she finds her way to London. There, Dr August Bridge, a cranial surgeon turned psychologist, is drawn to tracking her amnesia to its source. What brutality was she fleeing when she left the tranquil seclusion of a New England college campus to serve on the Front; for what crime did she need to atone - and whom did she leave behind?
Vivid, intense and gripping, packed with secrets and revelations, THE LIVES OF STELLA BAIN is at once a ravishing love story and an intense psychological mystery.
A powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit, this tale is utterly unforgettable - Lady
Atonement with just the tiniest dash of Downton Abbey. This is a First World War story with a difference . . . a fantastic read - Red
Gripping and moving - Sunday Times
Fascinating - Daily Mail
Anita Shreve teaches writing at Amherst College and divides her time between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She began writing as a high school teacher. One of her first published stories was awarded an O Henry Prize in 1975. She became a journalist, spending three years in Kenya. Back in the US, she wrote the non-fiction books Remaking Motherhood and Women Together, Women Alone and began her first novel Eden Close. In 1989, she turned to fiction full time. She is the author of many acclaimed novels and the international number-one bestsellers The Pilot's Wife, Fortune's Rocks and Sea Glass.