Wanderlust
A Novel
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- USD 5.99
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- USD 5.99
Descripción editorial
Wanderlust is the story of Audrey Driscoll. Orphaned young, Audrey has grown up caring for her eccentric millionaire grandfather and her demanding younger sister, Annabelle, who assume she will always be there for them. Sheltered yet restless, responsible beyond her years yet hungering for experience, Audrey is hopelessly bound until she herself makes the daring decision to leave. As the 1930s unfold, alone, camera in hand, she will shock friends and outrage family as she plunges headlong into the wider world.
Crossing the Atlantic aboard the luxurious Queen Mary, Audrey meets James and Violet Hawthorne, who will draw her into a sophisticated circle of artists and expatriates. And it is they who will introduce her to Charles Parker-Scott, in who Audrey will come to recognize a twin soul, a man propelled by relentless curiosity and driven by conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. Together they will spend an exquisite summer at Cap d'Antibes, then board the Orient Express on an adventure that will carry them to a remote outpost in China. But at the farthest reaches of this journey Aubrey must choose again. Japan has attacked China. Charles knows he must return to Europe at once. But Audrey becomes involved with a besieged orphanage and decides to remain in China without Charles, caring for the abandoned children until help arrives.
In time Audrey will return to America with a daughter of her own. While she must come home to San Francisco to confront a world irrevocably changed by time, she finds she cannot stay. From prewar Germany to London during the Blitz, from a wrenching reunion with Charles to a war zone in North Africa, again and again she must choose between the dictates of her conscience and the yearnings of her heart. For Audrey Driscoll and the men and women whose lives touch hers, wanderlust is the inescapable element. Born at a time when women were expected to stay close to home and fulfill traditional roles, Audrey is compelled to follow the thread of events that will destroy the complacency of the past and shape the future. From Europe to China, from San Francisco to North Africa, she is irresistibly drawn into a man's world of conflict, discovery, and danger.
In a vivid novel of breathtaking scope, Danielle Steel has once again surpassed herself in creating an unforgettable tale of men and women caught in the tides of personal drama and historic event. Wanderlust is Danielle Steel's finest journey.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Romance fans can expect to pick their way blindfolded along the familiar, rocky path to love in Steel's 18th novel, which begins in the 1930s. Audrey Driscoll often thinks that she might like to journey to exotic lands, but dutifully remains in San Francisco, keeping her wealthy grandfather's household running smoothly. But when her spoiled younger sister marries, Audrey indulges her whim by setting off for Europe. In Antibes, she falls hard for Charlie Parker-Scott, a well-known travel writer. Though torn by responsibility for her lonely grandfather, she throws caution to the winds and follows Charlie all the way to China. Despite his loving entreaties, she stubbornly remains there, trying to save a group of abandoned orphans. Finally returning to England, she finds that Charlie has married, angered by her defection. The lovers are later reunited only to be separated by World War II, until Audrey finds a way to combine their talents for the war effort. The book is largely unsatisfying, especially in its repetitious language. It seems that Steel has lost the spark that fueled Changes and Crossings. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club dual main selections.
