One of our Great Reads You May Have Missed in 2012.
I am reminded of the 20s musical number "Anything Goes" here, for in "The Chaperone" it certainly does. This is 20s New York, the girl being chaperoned is the young Louise Brooks (the silent filmstar) and the whole prohibition and explosive atmosphere of the period is superbly realised.
Our heroine is orphaned Cora, the chaperone, a lovely character in a dead-end marriage, bent on finding her biological family. What she discovers both in her marriage and her old adoption home are secrets that eventually all concerned will take to their graves. Highly recommended.
Soon to be a feature film from the creators of Downton Abbey
On a summer's day in 1922, Cora Carlisle boards a train from Wichita, Kansas, to New York City, charged with the care of a stunningly beautiful young girl with a jet-black bob and wisdom way beyond her fifteen years.
The girl is Louise Brooks and, for her, New York offers a chance of stardom beneath the bright lights of Broadway. For Cora, whose formative years were spent at The New York Home for Friendless Girls, the trip offers the opportunity to discover the truth about her past. It will also, although she doesn't realize it yet, offer her the chance for a very different future.
Set in a time of illicit thrills and daring glamour, a time when prohibition reigns and speakeasies thrive behind closed doors, The Chaperone tells Cora's story as she finally discovers who she is and - more importantly - who she wants to be.
'What a beautiful book. I loved every page' Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife
'This is that rare, precious and fabulous thing - a proper story, with characters you care about desperately and root for right to the end . . . I can't recommend this novel highly enough' Daily Mail
Laura Moriarty earned a degree in social work before returning for her M.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Kansas. She was the recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She lives with her daughter in Lawrence, Kansas.
