Lidie

Christmas 1857 finds Lidie Newton back in her hometown of Quincy, Illinois, wearing mourning clothes. Her abolitionist husband has been killed in the lawless Kansas Territory, and she carries the memory of what she sees as her own failures there. Her sisters offer little warmth, and the country around her is edging toward civil war.

What draws her out of her grief is her niece, Annie, a beautiful, confident and mischievous young woman who stands out in a small town. Annie takes up acting at the local theater, and when a chance comes to perform overseas, she resolves to run away. A young unmarried woman travelling alone is in real danger, so Lidie arms herself with a pistol and her sharp wits and goes along.

Their voyage across the Atlantic is a hard one, and it ends in Liverpool, where both women step into new lives in the household of Annie's patron, Mr. Mallory Cunningham. Annie adopts a stage name and builds a career, while Lidie takes work as her lady's maid. Neither can be sure the new arrangement will satisfy her.

Jane Smiley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, uses the two women's journeys to draw a wide picture of a turbulent age. The book is lively and absorbing, and it takes a wry look at truth, beauty and fulfillment through headstrong women who are trying to live honestly.