We Shall See the Sky Sparkling

December 1, 2018

DEBUT In her first novel, award-winning filmmaker Aikin builds on the passed-down family legend of a great-aunt who broke with conventions in turn-of-the-century London. At age 17, Lily Throop scandalously flees her strict family home to take work as a stagehand. She finds a patron and a tutor in the theater's leading actor, Mr. Wade. Wade's unbalanced demands grow as Lily succeeds in starring roles. To escape his intensity, she seeks the company and eventually the love of Chut, the stage manager's assistant. When Wade strikes out jealously, Lily joins a traveling company headed to Russia, where she gets caught up in another dangerous affair and finds herself headed to Siberia in exile and eventually to war. VERDICT Beginning and ending with letters written to her family, this novel has the feel of a serial drama. Readers of Pam Jenoff and Eva Stachniak will appreciate the strong-willed and artistically driven female character who finds her own way through difficult times.--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.

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