From the bestselling author of The House of Hawthorne comes a historical fiction novel that gives life to the women behind novelist Ernest Hemingway in a “robust, tender story of love, grief, and survival on Key West in the 1930s.”*In Depression-era Key West, Mariella Bennet, the daughter of an American fisherman and a Cuban woman, knows hunger. Her struggle to support her family following her … support her family following her father’s death leads her to a bar and bordello, where she bets on a risky boxing match…and attracts the interest of two men: world-famous writer, Ernest Hemingway, and Gavin Murray, one of the WWI veterans who are laboring to build the Overseas Highway.
When Mariella is hired as a maid by Hemingway’s second wife, Pauline, she enters a rarified world of lavish, celebrity-filled dinner parties and elaborate off-island excursions. As she becomes caught up in the tensions and excesses of the Hemingway household, the attentions of the larger-than-life writer become a dangerous temptation…even as straightforward Gavin Murray draws her back to what matters most. Will she cross an invisible line with the volatile Hemingway, or find a way to claim her own dreams? As a massive hurricane bears down on Key West, Mariella faces some harsh truths…and the possibility of losing everything she loves.
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Another winner from Robuck. If you think you know Hemingway, you don’t know this Hemingway. Fiction and fact combine beautifully in these compelling pages.
This was a good story about a servant in Hemingway’s household. It gave insignt into the live of a famous person, but was mostly about the maid. Good Story.
Interesting story about race and life in Hemingway’s world.
Enjoyed this book for several reasons. Number 1, I love Hemingway. I thought the characters were interesting and I loved the settings and era.
Hemingway was quite the character.
First of all, I am terrified that I’m going to start smoking. Mariella is as tied to her cigarettes as she is to the sea. A living, breathing thing in this book and the only thing not smoking. The author clearly knows life near the ocean, and I’m convinced could survive with a fishing pole and some tobacco while the rest of us died in an apocalypse.
The first thing you sense about this story is that Mariella is not going to hide in the shade of Hemingway. The story is all hers, and though he is larger than life, a naughty boy with a grin to get him out of every bad thing he does. Hemingway is compelling and nuanced in a way that never pulls you away from how Mariella views the world.
Mariella’s struggle between two men is a restless journey that almost every young woman has navigated. One guy who is so good, so perfect and another who only laughs at his own imperfections. The bad boy. The charismatic alpha dog. We’re drawn to them. I don’t even think we can help it. The chemistry between the three characters is riveting, human, and drags you back to your 20s. The age just before things go bad and you make mistakes you can’t take back. Mariella makes her share, but she skates away without scars.
The intensity of Robuck’s windup nearly blew me away. For the last thirty pages, you’ll need a box of tissues and a glass of wine. Loved it!
Good solid read
I kept wondering how much of this was true – did Hemingway and his wife really hire a beautiful young woman to be their housekeeper and “gofer” and, if so, was she able to escape his seductive charm? Still, it’s a good read, but not a great one.
Excellent historical fiction.
Fabulous read!
I have been to Key West and this book brought back memories. It was well written – never sure of just how it would end.
Love to read bout Hemmingway, this book disappointing
The book allows the reader to see a different side of the Hemmingway story,
I’m a Floridian, an English major, a salt water fisherwoman who knows the Keys, the climate, and the hurricane of 1935. I’ve visited Hemingway’s house in Key West and seen the monument to those lost in the hurricane in Islamorada. The heat, the salt air, the misfits of Key West all sing from the pages of this book. The premise of the hyper-masculine Hemingway being attracted by a young woman who shared his interests and was not cowed by his larger than life personality is believable. I felt as if I’d stepped back into the 1930’s with Papa and the gang.
This is a great presentation of Hemingway as he was in his relationships. He is not necessarily admirable but that is how is was. A great job by the author to present the way things were!