"1900. Young pianist Catherine Wainwright flees fashionable Dayton, Ohio, in the wake of a terrible scandal. Heartbroken and facing destitution, she strikes up a correspndence with a childhood admirer, the recently widowed Oscar Williams, and in desperation agrees to marry him.
Catherine travels to Oscar's farm on Galveston Island, Texas, and finds she is little prepared for the life that awaits her. The island is remote, the weather sweltering, and Oscar's little boy Andre is grieving for his lost mother.
Meanwhile for Nan Ogden, Oscar's housekeeper, Catherine's sudden arrival has come as a shock. Not only did she promise Oscar's first wife that she would be the one to take care of little Andre, she has feelings for Oscar which she is struggling to suppress. And when the worst storm in a generation descends, the women will find themselves tested as never before ..."
The Promise
is the new novel from Ann Weisgarber, author of the Orange Prize long-listed The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
.
