Frances and Bernard - Hardcover

Bauer, Carlene

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0547858248 ISBN 13: 9780547858241

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013

Synopsis

"A novel of stunning subtlety, grace, and depth . . . compos[ed in] dueling letters of breathtaking wit, seduction, and heartbreak." —Booklist, starred review

A letter can spark a friendship.
A friendship can change your life.

In the summer of 1957, Frances and Bernard meet at an artists’ colony. She finds him faintly ridiculous, but talented. He sees her as aloof, but intriguing. Afterward, he writes her a letter. Soon they are immersed in the kind of fast, deep friendship that can take over—and change the course of—our lives.

From points afar, they find their way to New York and, for a few whirling years, each other. The city is a wonderland for young people with dreams: cramped West Village kitchens, rowdy cocktail parties stocked with the sharp-witted and glamorous, taxis that can take you anywhere at all, long talks along the Hudson River as the lights of the Empire State Building blink on above.

Inspired by the lives of Flannery O’Connor and Robert Lowell, Frances and Bernard imagines, through new characters with charms entirely their own, what else might have happened. It explores the limits of faith, passion, sanity, what it means to be a true friend, and the nature of acceptable sacrifice. In the grandness of the fall, can we love another person so completely that we lose ourselves? How much should we give up for those we love? How do we honor the gifts our loved ones bring and still keep true to our dreams?

In witness to all the wonder of kindred spirits and bittersweet romance, Frances and Bernard is a tribute to the power of friendship and the people who help us discover who we are.

About this title

Review:

"Evocative...witty...sparky" (Stylist)

"Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity... Exquisite" (Washington Post)

"The characters’ charm and intelligence make them irresistible company" (Daily Mail)

"A story of conversion, shattered love and the loss of faith, recalling 20th-century masters like Graham Greene and Walker Percy... Bauer is a distinctive stylist who can write about Simone Weil or Kierkegaard with wit and charm." (New York Times Book Review)

"Warm, intelligent and addictive" (Katie Allen The Simple Things)

Book Description:

Two writers, one friendship, and an unforgettable correspondence. A glittering, smart and sassy debut of love, literature and letter writing.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0547858248
• ISBN 13: 9780547858241
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 195