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  • Published: 15 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099538172
  • Imprint: Windmill Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

Black And Blue




A woman on the run from her own life

'The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old.'

For eighteen years Fran Benedetto kept her secret, hid her bruises. She stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father, and because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she saw the look on her ten-year-old son's face, Fran finally made a choice - she ran for both their lives.

Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. She uses a name that isn't hers, watches over her son, and tries to forget. For the woman who now calls herself Beth, every day is a chance to heal, to put together the pieces of her shattered self. And every day she waits for Bobby to catch up with her. Bobby always said he would never let her go, and Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing: it is only a matter of time.

  • Published: 15 January 2012
  • ISBN: 9780099538172
  • Imprint: Windmill Books
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Anna Quindlen

Anna Quindlen is a novelist and journalist whose work has appeared on fiction, non-fiction, and self-help bestseller lists. She is the author of six novels: Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue, Blessings, Rise and Shine, and Every Last One. Her memoir Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, published in 2012, was a number one New York Times bestseller. Her book A Short Guide to a Happy Life has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times she won the Pulitzer Prize and published two collections, Living Out Loud and Thinking Out Loud. Her Newsweek columns were collected in Loud and Clear.

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Praise for Black And Blue

Quindlen invests her tale with rare pathos and even rarer psychological acumen ... the honesty of her storytelling is exemplary

Sunday Telegraph

Quindlen has got so deeply inside her characters that they gave me nightmares

The Times

I loved it. Qualities and shades of love are this writer's strong suit, and she has the unusual talent for writing about them with so much truth and heart that one is carried away on a tidal wave of involvement and concern

Elizabeth Jane Howard

It is rare to find a novel at once tender and taut, full of insight, yet with a darkness at its centre - and that's what makes it a gripping read

Margaret Forster

Don't miss Anna Quindlen's compassionate portrayal of a violent marriage

Marie Claire

Beautifully paced - keeps the reader anxiously turning the pages.

New York Times Book Review

Engrossing - compassionate and tense.

New York Times