This novel of love and literature by the author of Concord “brings to vivid life a fascinating cast of characters” including the Shelleys and Lord Byron (Denise Giardina, author of Emily’s Ghost).
In early nineteenth-century London, five-year-old Mary Godwin, daughter of a philosopher, plays with her sister, mourns her late mother, and marvels as a hot air balloon lands not far from the Thames. Nearby, in Sussex, eleven-year-old Percy Shelley entertains his three sisters by telling them stories and performing tricks with chemicals and fire.
A dozen years later, Mary and Percy meet and fall in love in the Godwin bookshop near Black Friar’s Bridge. At first their romance seems doomed: Percy is a well-known atheist and already has a wife, and Mary is only seventeen, under the care of her father and his overbearing second wife. But they consider such impediments trivial and are soon on their way to Ireland, Switzerland, and across Europe (with Mary’s flighty half-sister, Claire, in tow).
Upon reaching Lake Geneva they find lodgings near where the notorious poet Lord Byron and his peculiar personal physician, John Polidori, are staying—the same Lord Byron Claire seduced back in London—her reasoning being that if Mary can have a poet, why can’t she? And so begins the summer when Mary Shelley will start writing her novel about a man who brings to life a creature of his own making, Percy and Lord Byron will debate politics and poetry in the midst of lightning storms, Polidori will commence writing his novel about a man with a taste for human blood, and snow will fall in the middle of July.
Praise for the writing of award-winning author Don Zancanella
“Mr. Zancanella’s characters . . . are drawn with remarkable perception and control.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A strong sense of place [and] a subdued sense of humor.” —Western American Literature
“Clever and subtle . . . Polished.” —Publishers Weekly
