Undiscovered Country, Kelly OConnor McNees
Undiscovered Country, Kelly OConnor McNees
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Undiscovered Country
A Novel Inspired by the Lives of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok

Author: Kelly O'Connor McNees

Narrator: Ann Marie Gideon

Unabridged: 7 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/28/2020


Synopsis

In 1932, New York City, top reporter Lorena "Hick" Hickok starts each day with a front page byline—and finishes it swigging bourbon and planning her next big scoop.

But an assignment to cover FDR's campaign—and write a feature on his wife, Eleanor—turns Hick's hard-won independent life on its ear. Soon her work, and the secret entanglement with the new first lady, will take her from New York and Washington to Scotts Run, West Virginia, where impoverished coal miners' families wait in fear that the New Deal's promised hope will pass them by. Together, Eleanor and Hick imagine how the new town of Arthurdale could change the fate of hundreds of lives. But doing what is right does not come cheap, and Hick will pay in ways she never could have imagined.

Undiscovered Country artfully mixes fact and fiction to portray the intense relationship between this unlikely pair. Inspired by the historical record, including the more than three thousand letters Hick and Eleanor exchanged over a span of thirty years, McNees tells this story through Hick's tough, tender, and unforgettable voice. A remarkable portrait of Depression-era America, this novel tells the poignant story of how a love that was forced to remain hidden nevertheless changed history.

About Kelly O'Connor McNees

Kelly O'Connor McNees is the critically acclaimed author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, In Need of a Good Wife, and The Island of Doves. She lives in Chicago with her husband and daughter.


Reviews

UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY is actually the third fictional account I have read about Lorena "Hick" Hickok and Eleanor Roosevelt. And, I would, without any problems, read at least three more. I find both women fascinating to read about and I like reading new books that take a different look at their relati......more

Goodreads review by Lori

I adored this sensitively-written novel. McNees is a master of historical detail, and Eleanor and Lorena come alive in this tender story of love and friendship, hope and heartbreak. The stakes couldn't be higher for Eleanor and Lorena, making this page-turning story of forbidden love so bittersweet.......more

Goodreads review by Renée

Kelly O'Connor McNees is simply a beautiful writer. I have adored all her novels and have eagerly been awaiting the release of Undiscovered Country. She has a way of capturing characters and setting that stay with you long after you've turned the last page. I can't wait to see what she does next!......more

Goodreads review by Janelle

72: Undiscovered Country by Kelly O'Connor McNees...a "gift" from the Book of the Month Club with a deadline for reading and a survey to be completed (an opportunity and assignment I COMPLETELY relished!). This beautifully and well told fictional story is based on the volume of correspondence exchan......more

I love the perceptive writing of Kelly O'Connor McNees and the empathy she feels for her characters; I also have always been fascinated by Eleanor Roosevelt but knew almost nothing about her love story with Lorena Hickok until I read Kelly's novel. How richly she writes the story, whether telling of......more