BELVA PLAIN

It happened as car accidents often do, violently and without warning. In a flash of steel and glass, lives are lost, dreams shattered, and families forever changed. That's how it happens for Jean Wright. In the days that follow, as neighbors stop by with plates of food and words of comfort, Jean knows one thing for certain: her carefully ordered world will never be the same. For there is the surviving child to think about now—and Jean must put aside her grief to take in one-year-old Guin, who has no one else to raise her. But as Guin grows up into a shy, dreamy girl, their life together is fraught with conflict. When Guin defies the only mother she's ever known by striking out on her own—writing children's books and eloping with a man far below her social standing—their relationship seems irreparably damaged. It is only when Guin has a child of her own, a little girl who is so very like Jean in personality, that events come full circle...and she finds that the qualities that drive you apart can also draw you together. Reviews'As ever Belva envelopes many intriguing characters for a delightful profligacy of non-restrained emotions...an addictive page turner.' North Wales Chronicle on SIGHT OF THE STARS 'A terrific tale of a father's devotion and its sad consequences.' The Bookseller on HER FATHER'S HOUSE 'This is one book you won't be able to put down . . . be prepared for a thoroughly compelling read.' Woman's Weekly on FORTUNE'S HAND

Dressed in a brand-new suit, with one hundred and fifty dollars in his pocket, Adam Arnring says good-bye to his family and boards a train for the fabled West. The year is 1907. Adam is nineteen years old, a young man with stars in his eyes who has always dreamed of a future in the great open spaces of America. Now, far from his New Jersey home, he takes the first step toward attaining that dream, landing a job in a small department store in a booming Texas town. Here he meets a woman who excites him beyond all measure. The exquisite, untouchable Emma Rothirsch lives in a world whose doors are firmly closed to him. But Adam is a man willing to take great risks to get what he wants.One is Emma. The other is to build a lasting business enterprise that will live on through his children and grandchildren. But just when Adam's dreams are within reach, fate intervenes. Tragedy strikes from the trenches of World War I, setting in motion a series of events that echo down through the years. The owner of a prospering department store and the head of a growing family, Adam succumbs to a moment of weakness that culminates in an unforgivable act of betrayal. And now, as another generation prepares to take its rightful place in the family's legendary empire, the tenuous threads of the Arnrings' pastbegin to unravel, revealing a shattering secret that reaches back nearly a century.Across a teeming canvas of history, through world wars and the close of a century, The Sight of the Stars tells a deeply affecting story of family and forgiveness, guilt and redemption. Brimming with the emotional depth and moral complexity we have come to expect from this incomparable storyteller, The Sight of the Stars is about what happens when we dare to dream, and the moments that can change families forever.

THE SIGHT OF THE STARS chronicles four generations of the remarkable Anring family as they journey across a teeming canvas of history, through world wars and the close of a century, through years of love, loss, sacrifice and unimaginable betrayal. It is about what happens when we dare to dream, and the moments that can change families forever.

Donald Wolfe, a 25-year-old North Dakota native, comes to New York City in 1968 to practice law; five years later, he meets and falls for the captivat ing Lillian Morris. Marrying in haste, he repents big time when Lillian rev eals herself to be disturbingly erratic. After she becomes pregnant, the tw o divorce, but when Donald judges his daughter, Bettina, to be neglected, h e kidnaps her. Taking to the road, he invents a new past for himself and ad opts the name Jim, renaming his daughter Laura. Many years later, the truth is revealed and Jim stands trial for kidnapping. Will Laura, now a young w oman, be able to forgive her father his deception, which he claims was for her own good?