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A Novel
by Sheila Kohler
The year is 1846. In a cold parsonage on the gloomy Yorkshire moors, a family seems cursed with disaster. A mother and two children dead. A father sick, without fortune, and hardened by the loss of his two most beloved family members. A son destroyed by alcohol and opiates. And three strong, intelligent young women, reduced to poverty and spinsterhood, with nothing to save them from their fate. Nothing, that is, except their remarkable literary talent.
So unfolds the story of the Brontë sisters. At its center are Charlotte and the writing of Jane Eyre. Delicately unraveling the connections between one of fiction's most indelible heroines and the remarkable woman who created her, Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre will appeal to fans of historical fiction and, of course, the millions of readers who adore Jane Eyre.
"Starred Review. Kohler's exploration ...is sensitive, intelligent and engaging. A beautiful complement to Bronte's masterpiece." - Kirkus Reviews
"Too much narration and switching of points of view slows the pace, but connecting the writer with her heroine is intriguing." - Publishers Weekly
"If you know Jane Eyre and love it, don't deny yourself the pleasure of this intense little companion book." - The Washington Post
"Becoming Jane Eyre is lush and filled with dark sensuality and the tension of unsaid things. The style is quite different from Charlotte Bronte's in Jane Eyre yet the tone and imagery and spirit remain in the same realm. Jane Eyre is is my favorite book and Sheila Kohler one of my favorite writers." - Amy Tan
This information about Becoming Jane Eyre 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.
Sheila Kohler is the author of nine previous works of fiction, including Cracks, which is now a movie starring Eva Green. Her work has been included in the Best American Short Stories, and she has won two O'Henry Prizes, an Open Fiction Award, a Willa Cather Prize, and a Smart Family Foundation Prize.
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