Books 104: Tracy Chevalier

I admire great female authors because, well, they're women. One of my favorite female authors is Tracy Chevalier. I love all of her novels, and I've read all of them. I take great pride in that. :] Her most popular work is The Girl with the Pearl Earring, which was made into a film starring Scarlett Johansson as the main character. However, my favorite novel is Falling Angels, and it was the first book by Tracy Chevalier that I read. I was instantly hooked! It was unlike any novel that I've ever read. GoodReads gives a great summary of Falling Angels:


A fashionable London cemetery, January 1901: Two graves stand side by side, one decorated with an oversize classical urn, the other with a sentimental marble angel. Two families, visiting their respective graves on the day after Queen Victoria's death, teeter on the brink of a new era. The Colemans and the Waterhouses are divided by social class as well as taste. They would certainly not have become acquainted had not their two girls, meeting behind the tombstones, become best friends. And, even more unsuitably, become involved with the gravedigger's muddy son.

As the girls grow up, as the new king changes social customs, as a new, forward-thinking era takes wing, the lives and fortunes of the two families become more and more closely intertwined-neighbors in life as well as death.

Against a gas-lit backdrop of social and political history, Tracy Chevalier explores the prejudices and flaws of a changing time.

Sounds interesting? Indeed, it does! Chevalier's novels have one thing in common: historical fiction. Because of her, I love historical fiction. Her novels are entertaining and educational at the same time. It's what my peers would call a "win."

More information on Tracy Chevalier & a list of all her novels: [link]