Publisher's Synopsis
In 1964, twenty-year old Anna Stretferd writes the life story of Judith Shakespeare, the literary genius sister of William Shakespeare, to critical acclaim. Judith runs away from home to escape an arranged marriage and to pursue her thespian dreams and quest for true love in London only to find herself pregnant, poor, and alone. Forty years later Anna is a recluse living in her monstrous Victorian with a mysterious old man. Her known history is no more than a few facts-release dates of her books, a stint in a mental institution, and an ominous book dedication to an old lover. But when aspiring writer Letta Berget convinces Anna to allow her to write the novelist's biography, Anna's secrets-past and present-are not the only ones revealed. Letta has forfeited a life of her own in order to research Stretferd and become a writer of the highest caliber. But as she becomes submerged in the lives of Anna and Judith she discovers that in order to realize her dreams, she must face her own dark origins and not be afraid to live a life of her own.
