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Published Oct 2019
304 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
A novel about the American theatre of the 1850s. The New York theatre of that era was the Hollywood of its day, with all its trademark insanities. It was everything that was America. Its beauty and excitement, its rise and fall of personalities, its joys and desperations, selfish corruptions and violence. Even its hatred and racism.
Enter Colonel Tearwood's American Theatre Company. Helmed by actor Nathanial Luck and playwright Robert Harrison, it revolutionizes the theatre of the times by bringing daily life to the stage: Love affairs, social corruption, political intrigue, violence and death grip the audience as backstage the players' fortunes rise and fall and rise again in an all too human play. There's dashing Nathaniel Luck, hunted for the Pickwick Paper murders; beautiful Genevieve Wells, a con artist and swindler; Rosina Swain, aspiring actress in search of a father; and Robert Harrison, scion of a wealthy family, who was burned and disfigured in the infamous Wall Street fire, and turns the ruins of his body into art. How beautiful they were...
"Teran sheds light on a turbulent, tipping point of American history, but it is the human stories—intimate, real, and heartfelt—that form the book's core. Readers will be captivated to the final page." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Teran's meticulous research and devotion to period detail, combined with his dazzling prose and command of language, paints an unforgettable portrait of a forgotten time and place in American history. One of the best novels of the year! Highly recommended!" - Eric Petersen, Internet Review of Books
"Filled with evocative descriptions, compelling drama, and the backdrop of seasons passing through New York City's 1800s culture, How Beautiful They Were is a captivating examination of life and death both on and off stage, and will delight not just general-interest novel readers, but those who hold a special affection for theatre history and New York City." - Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review
"Boston Teran's writing is incredible - simultaneously muscular, literate and poetic. Sometimes we can forget how powerful good writing can be. Teran's words are like a beautiful punch in the face. He may be the best writer working today..." - Nick Cassavetes, film director of The Notebook and Alpha Dog
"This taut chronicle of despair and hope poses a powerful lens over a transformative period of our past. Unrelenting and haunting, yet at times poetic, How Beautiful They Were is deeply inventive and an irresistible read." - Eliot Pattison, Edgar Award winning author of the Inspector Shan Series and the Bone Rattler series
This information about How Beautiful They Were was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Boston Teran is the internationally acclaimed author of twelve novels, many of them translated into foreign languages. He has been named alongside great American writers like Hemingway and Larry McMurtry, as well as filmmakers John Ford and Sam Peckinpah, for his singular voice and ability to weave timely social and political themes into sweeping page turners that pierce straight into America's soul. God is a Bullet, currently in film development, is considered a cult classic that has been compared to such seminal works as Joan Didion's The White Album and John Ford's The Searchers. Never Count Out the Dead has been called a modern equivalent of MacBeth. The Creed of Violence sold to Universal, with Todd Field (Little Children) set to direct and Daniel Craig in the starring role. The author has been nominated or won over 17 awards, including The Edgar Award for Best First Novel and the Foreword "Book of the Year Award" as well as the International Impact Award of Dublin for Best Novel, the Best Novel of the Year in Japan and the John Creasy Award in England.
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