Her mother vanished when she was four, and her father was in and out of jail, leaving McLain and her two sisters (one older, one younger) to move in and out of various foster homes for the next fourteen years. McLain has also published two collections of poetry in 19, a memoir about growing up in the foster system in 2003, and the novel A Ticket to Ride in 2008. Her 2015 novel centering on female aviator Beryl Markham was released to excellent reviews in 2015. That work became a long-time New York Times bestseller. Paula McLain is an American author best known for her novel, The Paris Wife, a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage. Education-M.F.A., University of Michigan.Heralded by Ann Patchett as 'the new star of historical fiction,' Paula McLain brings Gellhorn’s story richly to life and captures her as a heroine for the ages: a woman who will risk absolutely everything to find her own voice. It is a dilemma that could force her to break his heart, and hers. In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest’s relationship and their professional careers ignite.īut when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer.

But she also finds herself unexpectedly-and uncontrollably-falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.

It’s the adventure she’s been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict.

The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn-a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century.

Love and Ruin by Paula McLain