A Sudden Change of Heart
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- 35,00 kr
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- 35,00 kr
Utgivarens beskrivning
In the blockbuster storytelling tradition that is Barbara Taylor Bradford’s hallmark, here is an extraordinary novel about a remarkable young woman and the people whose lives she touches.
At thirty-one Laura Valiant is a successful art historian who runs her own art advisory and acquisitions company. She and her husband Douglas Casson, a Wall Street lawyer, have a happy marriage marred only by the fact that they are still childless. But Laura’s life changes radically in 1997, when her best friend from childhood, Claire Benson, tells her she is dying. Claire, who is divorced, begs Laura to become her daughter Natasha’s guardian upon her death. Laura agrees and brings the fifteen-year-old girl to live with them in New York City after Claire dies. It is then that Laura’s troubles begin – with Natasha, with the girl’s father and grandmother, who suddenly reappear in her life, and with Douglas. Laura’s love and trust in her husband are shaken when she discovers he has a secret life apart from her. But it is her problems which force her to examine her own life, and this sets her on a path that inevitably leads her to a series of shattering truths. These revelations give Laura the chance to start a whole new life which promises to give her the happiness and fulfilment she craves.
From the streets of Paris and London to the art galleries and art auctions of New York, A Sudden Change of Heart takes the reader on an unforgettable journey where secrets, survival, love and redemption mesmerize the reader from the first page to the last. This is Barbara Taylor Bradford’s fifteenth novel and it is told with the emotion and feeling readers have come to expect from one of the world’s most beloved authors.
Reviews
Praise for Barbara Taylor Bradford:
'Queen of the genre.' Sunday Times
‘Few novelists are as consummate as Barbara Taylor Bradford at keeping the reader turning the page. She is one of the world’s best at spinning yarns.’ Guardian
‘As romantic and thrilling as the rest’ Independent on Sunday
‘Another great yarn from the ultimate storyteller’ The Sun
‘The storyteller of substance.’ The Times
About the author
Barbara Taylor Bradford was born and raised in England. She started her writing career on the Yorkshire Evening Post and later worked as a journalist in London. Her first novel, A Woman of Substance, became an enduring bestseller and was followed by many more, including the bestselling Cavendon series. Barbara’s books have sold more than eighty-one million copies worldwide in more than ninety countries and forty languages. In October of 2007, Barbara was appointed an OBE by the Queen for her services to literature.
To find out more and join the huge community of her fans, find Barbara on Facebook @BarbaraTaylorBradford, follow her on Twitter @BTBNovelist and sign up to her newsletter at www.barbarataylorbradford.co.uk.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Another version of the indefatigable, headstrong heroine that's been Bradford's trademark since she first published A Woman of Substance 20 years ago appears here in a watered-down version as Laura Valiant, a New York art dealer who specializes in impressionist and post-impressionist works. Laura has what she thinks is a storybook marriage, and her closest childhood friend, Claire Benson, now publisher and editor-in-chief of a French interior design and art magazine, offers contrast as a bitter, divorced woman who dotes on her teenage daughter. Bradford's exploration of the relationship between the two women depicts a series of heartbreaks and scandals, most with more surface than substance. Claire's hidden past of childhood abuse, foreshadowed early in the book, makes the other characters appear obtuse for missing obvious clues. Meanwhile, Laura's "perfect" husband turns out to be bisexual, Claire's difficult ex-husband reappears in her daughter's life and Claire ends up confronting advanced breast cancer and battling for her life with Laura's loving support. The book tackles these all-too-familiar issues with a kind of stilted preachiness, and with often repetitive dialogue and a formulaic romance involving Laura and Claire's ex-husband. Contemporary headlines about Holocaust survivors demanding the return of Nazi-looted, privately owned works of art that surfaced in museums and private collections forms an important part of the plot, but Bradford's material on this controversial subject reads more like a newspaper article than an integrated theme. The saving grace in this, her 15th novel, is an echo of the memorable Emma Harte from Bradford's debut publication in Laura's grandmother, Megan Valiant, a strong-willed, charismatic woman who, with her colorful past and candid wisdom, will strike most readers as the real heroine of the saga. National author "High Tea" tour. FYI: This novel marks Bradford's return to Doubleday after several books with HarperCollins.