Through it all, even as Hick's bond with Eleanor is tested by forces both extraordinary and common, and as she grows as a woman and a writer, she never loses sight of the love of her life.įrom Washington, D.C.

After she takes a job in the Roosevelt administration, promoting and protecting both Roosevelts, she comes to know Franklin not only as a great president but as a complicated rival and an irresistible friend, capable of changing lives even after his death. She moves into the White House, where her status as 'first friend' is an open secret, as are FDR's own lovers. But then, as her connection with the future first lady deepens into intimacy, what begins as a powerful passion matures into a lasting love, and a life that Hick never expected to have. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinvented herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, 'Hick,' as she's known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic, patrician Eleanor. Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt's first presidential campaign. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Financial Times - San Francisco Chronicle - New York Public Library - Refinery29 - Real Simple Through it all, even as Hick's bond with Eleanor is tested by forces both extraordinary and common, and as she grows as a woman and a writer, she never loses sight of the love of her life.įor readers of The Paris Wife and The Swans of Fifth Avenue comes a 'sensuous, captivating account of a forbidden affair between two women' ( People )-Eleanor Roosevelt and 'first friend' Lorena Hickok.

The unexpected and forbidden affair between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok unfolds in a triumph of historical fiction.

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