Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. 352 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

1. "On a snowy night in the winter of 1946, Arthur Henning arrives at a New York banker's country estate. All he has with him are his young son, his sewing machine, and the painful history of the refugee - the home in Vienna he left behind, the wife and infant daughter who perished in London's blitz, and the relatives and friends who disappeared into the abyss of the Holocaust. He has come to begin a new life and to forget." "Once an expert tailor, now he is employed as a chauffeur. He drives Mr. Duvall to work in the city, Mrs. Duvall to her shopping, their daughter, Agatha, to school. The job gives Arthur solace. There's a cottage for him and his son, Toby, to live in, congeniality in the mansion's kitchen with the other servants, pleasure in watching Toby grow up alongside charming little Agatha. And so there he has remained for nearly a decade, hidden, unable to confront his shattered faith, his fear, and the measure of everything he has lost." "Hidden, that is, until life steps in to release Arthur from his seclusion. On orders from Mr. Duvall, he must drive Agatha to her own confinement in that peculiarly American institution of the 1950s, a home for unwed mothers. The Duvalls' plan to give the baby away shocks Arthur from his emotional slumber. The story of these two people - a man who has lost his past and a girl who is forced to give up her future - winds its way to a conclusion that is both inevitable and wholly unpredictable."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

1. Domestic fiction
2. Refugees > Fiction
3. Illegitimate children > Fiction
4. Chauffeurs > Fiction
5. Psychological fiction
6. New York (N.Y.) > Fiction
7. Fathers and sons > Fiction
8. Children of the rich > Fiction
9. Teenage pregnancy > Fiction
10. Historical fiction

Genre/Form

1. Psychological fiction.
2. Historical fiction.
3. Domestic fiction.

Owning institution

1. Columbia University Libraries

Note

1. "A Shannon Ravenel book."