Lidie: The Further Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton

What a fabulous sequel from one of our most cherished authors, Jane Smiley - is there ANYTHING she doesn't write about beautifully? Lidie Newton first appeared in a 1998 novel as a budding spinster who evolves into an abolitionist and married woman, whose husband and their horse Jeremiah are murdered by anti-slavery ruffians in the Kansas Territories before the Civil War. Now, almost thirty years hence, Smiley takes up her story in 1857, as Lidie accompanies her niece Annie who abandons her family and sails off to Liverpool to become a stage actress. Lidie is still deep in mourning but finds that the excitement of living in a new country enables her to put her pain aside. Abolitionists are active in England and Lidie falls in with the show more handsome John Hegarty, a minister in a church that has a congregation of Black and white parishioners. She also becomes a helper in the Cunningham household, where the father is the prime mover of Annie's budding career. The butler Barnsby, who shares Lidie's love of horses (Jane Smiley's too!), becomes a nurturing companion to Lidie, as does a local gardener, Reggie, who declares that he and Lidie are sister and brother. The addition of a young filly Toffee to the household fills Lidie's world with joy. With such great friends and so many discoveries to be made in Liverpool, her freedom to roam at will, and Annie's success on the stage, Lidie is content, but Annie is destined to leave Liverpool for the West End stages of London, and Lidie for more international travel. Hopefully more adventures will flow for Lidie from Jane Smiley's brilliantly creative pen. show less