Introduction

"Beautifully written, compulsively readable... " So says Indie Reader of The Unstoppable Eliza Haycraft - the riveting novel about a legendary woman in antebellum Missouri who allowed neither men nor society's conventions to keep her from cutting her own remarkable path.

The year is 1844. On a May midnight, Eliza Haycraft flings herself into a canoe to escape a husband who beats her and a life that does the same. She is penniless and illiterate. Yet a decade later, sex and secrets will make her the wealthiest woman in St. Louis, a frontier boom town at the western edge of a restless nation.

With only herself to rely on, Eliza becomes a prostitute and madam, then a property owner and puller of strings. She tangles with a vindictive rival and a governor who will become a Civil War turncoat. Scarred by experience, she finds true love but dares not admit it even to herself.

And when civil war looms, Eliza faces a devastating choice: whether to risk her own life for the survival of everything-and everyone-she holds dear.

Inspired by a true story, set in a tumultuous era too like our own, The Unstoppable Eliza Haycraft is historical fiction at its sweeping best: with richly drawn characters, a shattering love story, and an extraordinary heroine you will remember long after the last page is turned...

Editorial Review

No Editorial Review Currently Available

Excerpt

“Eliza Haycraft was born in Callaway County, Mo., on the 14th of February, 1820, of humble and honest parents. Possessed of unusual personal attractions and a warm and confiding nature, she early fell a prey to the arts of the seducer, and became an outcast from home and country. She had never received any education, and to the day of her death was totally innocent of letters. When a young woman of about twenty years she fled from her home, and, embarking all alone in a frail canoe on the turbulent bosom of the Missouri, started for St. Louis… ” ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. As Eliza embarks on her life as a prostitute, she thinks this: "Perhaps I can find a way to close some part of myself off, as if it is some other woman doing what I must and I myself, the true part of me, is watching only. I don’t want to be coldhearted and unfeeling—then it is my mother I become—but I must pick and choose my times to feel. I must remember my aim: to have my own money, to have the money to be free." Do you think it is possible for a woman to do that?

2. When Charity sees the portrait of Eliza, she remarks: “And to think, Eliza. You are the one who doesn’t believe in love.” Do you think Charity is correct, that Eliza doesn’t believe in love?

3. Late in her life, Eliza says: “I have had a full measure of life... Not the way I dreamt about when I was a girl, no, but it is enough all the same. The way I have lived, it has cost me. But it has given me freedom, too, more than most women.” Do you agree with her assessment, as portrayed?

Weblinks

»	Author's website

Book Club Recommendations

Recommended to book clubs by 0 of 0 members.

Member Reviews

There are no user reviews at this time.
Rate this book