SummaryNew York Times bestselling author Belva Plain beguiles us
once again with a novel that explores the bonds that
sustain families—and the lies that can shatter them
forever. Sweeping through the pivotal events of twentieth-
century America, The Sight of the Stars chronicles four
generations of one remarkable family as they journey
through years of love, loss, sacrifice, and unimaginable
betrayal. Dressed in a brand-new suit, with one hundred and fifty
dollars in his pocket, Adam Arnring says good-bye to his
family and boards a train for the fabled West. The year is
1907. Adam is nineteen years old, a young man with stars in
his eyes who has always dreamed of a future in the great
open spaces of America. Now, far from his New Jersey home,
he takes the first step toward attaining that dream,
landing a job in a small department store in a booming
Texas town. Here he meets a woman who excites him beyond
all measure. The exquisite, untouchable Emma Rothirsch
lives in a world whose doors are firmly closed to him. But
Adam is a man willing to take great risks to get what he
wants. One is Emma. The other is to build a lasting business
enterprise that will live on through his children and
grandchildren. But just when Adam's dreams are within
reach, fate intervenes. Tragedy strikes from the trenches
of World War I, setting in motion a series of events that
echo down through the years. The owner of a prospering
department store and the head of a growing family, Adam
succumbs to a moment of weakness that culminates in an
unforgivable act of betrayal. And now, as another
generation prepares to take its rightful place in the
family's legendary empire, the tenuous threads of the
Arnrings' past begin to unravel, revealing a shattering
secret that reaches back nearly a century. Across a teeming canvas of history, through world wars and
the close of a century, The Sight of the Stars tells a
deeply affecting story of family and forgiveness, guilt and
redemption. Brimming with the emotional depth and moral
complexity we have come to expect from this incomparable
storyteller, The Sight of the Stars is about what happens
when we dare to dream, and the moments that can change
families forever.
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