Five Weeks in the Country

<p>In the summer of 1857, as newspapers warn that a blazing comet is hurtling towards Earth, an unusual-looking stranger arrives at Gad's Hill, the country home of Charles Dickens. A decade earlier, at a London dinner party, Dickens had made the fateful mistake of inviting Hans Christian Andersen to stay. Now, the great Danish fairy-tale writer has appeared on his doorstep.

Awkward, anxious and spectacularly out of place, Andersen is enchanted by Dickens's lively household, his gaggle of children and seemingly devoted wife. But the domestic harmony he longs for is not all it appears. As Dickens embarks on a clandestine affair with a young actress, the two legendary but deeply troubled writers become locked in a comedy of clashing temperaments, wounded pride and spectacular misunderstandings, turning an ill-fated visit into something stranger than fiction.

Inspired by an extraordinary footnote in literary history, Five Weeks in the Country shows Francine Prose at her dazzling best with a hilarious, touching story of the stories we tell ourselves and each other.</p>