Product Overview
Inspired by the midcentury memoirs of Frances Conway, Enchanted Islandsis the dazzling story of an independent American woman whose path takes her far from her native Minnesota when she and her husband, an undercover intelligence officer, are sent to the Galpagos Islandsat the brink of World War II.
Born in Duluth, Minnesota, in 1882 to immigrant parents, Frances Frankowski covets the life of her best friend, Rosalie Mendel, who has everything Fanny could wishformoney, parents who value education, andan effervescent and winning personality. When, at age fifteen, Rosalie decides they should runaway to Chicago, Fanny jumps at the chance toescape her unexceptional life. But, within a year,Rosalie commits an unforgivable betrayal, incitingFrances to strike out on her own.
Decades later, the women reconnect in San Francisco and realize how widely their liveshavediverged. While Rosalie is a housewife and mother,Frances works as a secretary for the Office ofNaval Intelligence. There she is introduced toAinslie Conway, an intelligence operator ten yearsher junior. When its arranged for Frances and Ainslie to marry and carry out a mission on theGalpagos Islands, the couples identitiesalreadyhidden from each otherare further buried under their new cover stories. No longer a lonelyspinster, Frances is about to begin the most fascinating and intrigue-filled years of her life.
Amid active volcanoes, forbidding wildlife and flora, and unfriendly neighbors, Ainslie and Frances carve out a life for themselves. But the secrets they harbor from their enemies and from each other may be their undoing.
Drawing on the rich history of the early twentieth century and set against a large, colorfulcanvas, Enchanted Islands boldly examines the complexity of female friendship, the universal pursuit of a place to call home, and the reverberations of secrets we keep from others and from ourselves.
