The Lions of Fifth Avenue: A Novel
The Lions of Fifth Avenue: A Novel book cover

The Lions of Fifth Avenue: A Novel

Paperback – Large Print, August 4, 2020

Price
$15.99
Format
Paperback
Pages
464
Publisher
Random House Large Print
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0593285985
Dimensions
6.08 x 0.8 x 9.18 inches
Weight
15.6 ounces

Description

About the Author Fiona Davis is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including The Dollhouse , The Address , The Masterpiece , The Chelsea Girls , The Lions of Fifth Avenue , and The Magnolia Palace . She lives in New York City and is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School.

Features & Highlights

  • A
  • Good Morning America
  • Book Club Pick
  • and a
  • New York Times
  • bestseller
  • !
  • “A page-turner for booklovers everywhere! . . . A story of family ties, their lost dreams, and the redemption that comes from discovering truth.”—Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of
  • The Shoemaker's Wife
  • In
  • New York Times
  • bestselling author Fiona Davis's latest historical novel, a series of book thefts roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces.
  • It's 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn't ask for more out of life—her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building, and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. As her studies take her all over the city, she is drawn to Greenwich Village's new bohemia, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club—a radical, all-female group in which women are encouraged to loudly share their opinions on suffrage, birth control, and women's rights. Soon, Laura finds herself questioning her traditional role as wife and mother. And when valuable books are stolen back at the library, threatening the home and institution she loves, she's forced to confront her shifting priorities head on . . . and may just lose everything in the process. Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after she's wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public Library. But the job quickly becomes a nightmare when rare manuscripts, notes, and books for the exhibit Sadie's running begin disappearing from the library's famous Berg Collection. Determined to save both the exhibit and her career, the typically risk-averse Sadie teams up with a private security expert to uncover the culprit. However, things unexpectedly become personal when the investigation leads Sadie to some unwelcome truths about her own family heritage—truths that shed new light on the biggest tragedy in the library's history.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(3.8K)
★★★★
25%
(3.2K)
★★★
15%
(1.9K)
★★
7%
(891)
23%
(2.9K)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Why doesn't the book description say it's a lesbian love story?

I started reading the book because I was led to believe it was a nifty literary historical mystery. As I began to read about Laura's attempts to expand her horizon and her viewing her marriage as constraining warning bells went off. Sure enough, what we were never told about in any of the reviews I read or the jacket blurb itself happened. No problem with that topic. I just wasn't in the mood for a novel about a lesbian romance. I wouldn't have bothered to attempt to read the book. The author seems to want to have it both ways. A shout out to Laura for her professional and sexual liberation. No matter the implication that lesbian relationships involve more sharing of the household chores than a heterosexual one does, I have to disagree there. But then, Laura is "punished" for her choices as her family disintegrates and the novel gets pretty darn grim and you can say that it all started with Laura's spreading her wings to learn to fly. Kind of shaming that I thought was unfair. The author tries to scratch out as much uplifting scenes and themes at the end as she can but it's kind of hard, yes Laura lived out her years with her partner true to her real self, that's fine, but at the cost, her husband's personal destruction and death, the total loss of her son, so depressing ultimately.
8 people found this helpful
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Not worth it

The idea of the storyline is good, but it didn't hold up and I lost interest about half way. Don't recommend.
2 people found this helpful
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Good read

Great book. Very interesting read. Really like this author
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Beautiful mystery from the past and present

Great mystery of past and present brought together in a family dynamic.
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Interesting!

Starts out slow but then really catches your interest.
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Sophisticated thriller

Marvelous book. Easy read that you don’t want to put down. Encouraged everyone I know to read it. Excellent book club novel.
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Great relationship between two women.

My granddaughter recommended this book. Now I am passing it onto my daughter. I grew up in Hell's Kitchen which not too far from the famous Library in Bryant park.