Belva Plain was an American author celebrated for her mainstream women's fiction. Her novels, often accessible and engaging, frequently explored themes of family, relationships, and the societal shifts impacting women's lives. Through her writing, she captured the complex emotions and dilemmas of her characters, resonating with a broad audience and leading to her works being translated into numerous languages.
From a quiet turn-of-the-century village in upstate New York to war-torn London, from the bedsides of the rural poor to the life-and-death urgency of a great New York City hospital, this is a powerful epic of three generations of doctors in one magnificent family. The Farrells-dedicated, brilliant.. and driven to the edge of destruction by a love no human force could suppress.
Born into poverty and fear, Anna is desperate to leave her native Poland. Determined to make something of herself, Anna moves into a cramped New York slum and finds a job in a sweatshop. When two very different men fall in love with her, Anna is destined to be forever torn in love and loyalty.
“Belva Plain is a talented tale-spinner with an almost Dickensian ability to keep her stories going.”—Philadelphia Inquirer Paul Werner watched the proud, daring immigrant Anna marry another man. But his desire for her haunts him...even after he weds the elegant Mimi, a woman of his own class. Now, as Paul wrestles with the dark demons of forbidden passion, his family and business are plunged into a maelstrom of tragedy and social changes. Ahead lie the dark days of the Depression, the rise of pure evil in Europe, and a war that will change the world forever. But for Paul Werner a more personal struggle awaits—a choice of a lifetime and a new beginning, or the most painful of final good-byes. Belva Plain’s Tapestry takes up the threads of lives encountered in her beloved epic, Evergreen, to create an entirely new drama of a family’s loyalties and divisions, its secrets, and its destiny. . . .
In this magnificent return to the world of Evergreen, Henrietta Roth, an extraordinary woman, fights to control her destiny; and three turbulent generations come vividly to life against a background of immigrant struggle, war, and passion.
The Werner family saga continues as Iris and Theo's marriage dissolves, their son Steve is drawn to the charismatic son of Paul Werner's niece Meg, and Paul finds himself drawn to Theo
She was a girl as beautiful and innocent as her family's lush Caribbean plantation—until she discovered the darkness of desire and became a woman. Expelled from paradise, Teresa Francis would be swept into marriage and the opulence of New York only to be drawn back to her island, where secrets can ignite explosions of political upheaval and clandestine love.
In Legacy of Silence, New York Times bestselling author Belva Plain creates an unforgettable story of a remarkable family—and a deception that reaches across continents, oceans, and generations. Caroline Hartzinger flees wartime Europe with a shattered life and a devastating secret. Pregnant and unwed, she arrives in America in 1939. Joel Hirsch offers marriage and respectability, hoping one day to earn her love, if not the passion she feels for a man whose memory still haunts them both. With Joel, Caroline builds a new life, determined to bury the past—until her daughter Eve brings Caroline’s carefully crafted world crashing down again, driven by a rage to learn the truth. Now it is Eve’s secret, a legacy that taints her life and puts generations at risk. But with it comes a gift—a new sister, young enough to be her own daughter, who offers hope, then a truth that will finally break the hold of the past.
The doctor's office is cool, white, sterile. But the doctor's words are searing: blood tests prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Margaret and Arthur Crawfield's beloved, dying son is not their child. Now they must face Peter's death and the shock of having a son they have never met. Grieving, yet compelled, they begin a search that will tear two families apart. Laura and "Bud" Rice share an elegant home and two children, brilliant, handsome Tom, and cherished, chronically ill eleven-year-old Timmy. But after nineteen years of marriage, Laura's respectable husband is a stranger—and the reason for Tom's escalating involvement with a group of campus bigots. Suddenly the Crawfields enter their lives and shatter their fragile world. As the Rices' quiet Southern town explodes with hate and violence, the two familes must embrace—or be destroyed by—the shattering truth.
A story of family... the Osbornes -- two sisters and a brother -- united by family ties but split apart by different dreams. Lara, the happy young wife, longs for the family that will make her life whole. Connie, wild and lovely, is more like her brother Eddy -- bright, ambitious, and ready to seize all that life has to offer. A story of choices... Connie is looking for wealth -- to make or to marry. Lara, staying behind in a small Ohio town, finds everything she cherishes threatened by fate and by her own blind commitment. And Eddy, as Wall Street's "wonder boy," can make millions... if he ruthlessly uses his family and friends. A story of marriages... Lara's held together by devotion, Connie's shattered by infidelity and betrayal, and Eddy's rocked by shame and prison. Torn by conflicting loyalties, they are a family caught in the tides of scandal... and swept toward a fate where dreams may end or be born again...
Decades after her father kidnapped her from his ex-wife's home to save her from an unstable environment, a young woman struggles to come to terms with her father's criminal action and the deception that forms the foundation of her entire life.
In this magnificent return to the world of Evergreen, Henrietta Roth, an extraordinary woman, fights to control her destiny; and three turbulent generations come vividly to life against a background of immigrant struggle, war, and passion.
Robert and Lynn Ferguson are a picture-perfect couple with two beautiful daughters and a lovely home in an exclusive Connecticut community. Robert is on the fast track of a major corporation. Lynn is devoted to her family and good works. But in the Ferguson's closed doors hide a painful secret Lynn must keep from the world-and her children-at any cost... Not even the Fergusons's best friends, Josie and Bruce Lehman, know of Lynn's shame. Social worker Josie sees her bruises distrusts the too-ambitious, too perfect Robert, and suspects the real cause of the children's increasingly disturbed behavior. But not even Josie can pierce Lynn's wall of silence, a wall that will not crumble until Lynn is forced to face herself-and the truth-at last. Belva Plain's searing novel of a family's heartbreak, a woman's courage, and a subject too often talked about only in whispers.
At thirty-six, Jennie Rakowsky's dreams were coming true. She was about to marry a wonderful man, her career as a lawyer was skyrocketing, and she had never been more beautiful. And then the secret she had hidden for nineteen years threatened to shatter it all. From the Paperback edition.
Robb Daniels, an idealistic schoolteacher, heads off to law school, leaving his hometown girl behind and embarking on a less-than-noble grab for power that will eventually destroy two families. Reprint.
Exploring the complexities of womanhood, this novel delves into themes of love and betrayal, examining the boundaries of loyalty and friendship. It presents a poignant narrative that challenges the characters' relationships and their capacity for forgiveness, highlighting the emotional struggles women face in their roles as wives and friends. Belva Plain's storytelling captures the essence of human connection and the trials that test them.
The realities below the surface of a seemingly admirable family when Sally, a journalist happily married to Dan, a respectable businessman, discovers her five-year-old daughter has been sexually molested. The setting is New York State. By the author of Daybreak
Three weeks after an elderly woman sends letters to her troubled relatives, two estranged and hostile brothers, a young couple on the verge of divorce, and a loving couple whose parents despise one another come together at the home of the family matriarch, in a story of familial conflict and reconciliation
Lynn a vingt ans lorsqu'elle rencontre Robert Ferguson. Elle, la jolie secrétaire, tombe irrésistiblement amoureuse de son ténébreux patron. Un mariage heureux, deux enfants et une jolie maison dans les quartiers chic de la côte Est : le bonheur. Jusqu'au jour où un tragique accident emporte leur cadette. Soudain, les démons de Robert se réveillent. Violence verbale, puis physique. Si Lynn tente de sauver les apparences, la confiance est rompue. Que cache le passé de cet homme dont elle sait si peu ? D'où vient sa colère ? Avec l'aide de ses amis, Lynn tente de reprendre sa vie en main. Entre révolte et angoisse, comment échapper à ce cauchemar ?
Aprs̈ 17 ans de vie commune, une mr̈e de trois enfants s'aperȯit que son mari la trompe et fait face ̉un divorce. [SDM].
Etats-Unis, 1907. Des rêves plein la tête et son courage comme seul bagage, Adam, 20 ans, quitte son père et ses deux demi-frères pour aller tenter sa chance vers l'Ouest. Direction : Chattahoochee, petite ville du Nouveau-Mexique, terre d'abondance et de grandes espérances. C'est ici, à mille lieues de chez lui, que l'audacieux Adam va gravir une à une les marches du succès, en prenant la tête d'un grand magasin de mode et faire une rencontre déterminante, celle de la douce et belle Emma, riche héritière au passé douloureux. Une véritable renaissance professionnelle et sentimentale bientôt mise à l'épreuve par les soubresauts de l'histoire et les trahisons échafaudées par sa propre famille...
First came the sin. Then the lies. He was handsome, charming, irresistable, and an eighteen-year-old lady-killer, her uncle Cliff's stepson, Ted. But in one terrible night he would shatter the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Dawes and nearly destroy her family. Years afterward, Charlotte would remember that night with fear and loathing, with pain that could be banished only by her work as a gifted architect, building a new world for others as she conceals her own. For Charlotte's family, prime employers in New England mill town, what happened to Charlotte was the beginning of the end. Her father is left shattered by his daughter's pain. Her troubled mother is unable to cope. And her distinguished family has fallen from grace, plunged into debt. The only rock that sustains them in their darkest hours is a woman whose own guilty secret has given her the power to ruin--or resurrect--the family to whom she owes her life. Belva Plain's searing novel cuts to the heart of a family ravaged by secrecy. But it is ultimately a story of redemption, the kind that grows when one person dares to tell the truth.
A Miriam, splendida e inquieta adolescente sfuggita alla miseria di un ghetto in Germania e sbarcato nella scintillante New Orleans, il futuro sembra schiudere mille promesse di felicità. Ma quando il suo ambizioso matrimonio fallisce e la guerra civile diventa una minaccia sempre più reale e vicina, il destino dell'intera famiglia e di tutto ciò che ha di più caro è nelle sue mani.
La splendida tenuta di Eleuthera, nell'isola caraibica di San Felice, appartiene da più di trecento anni a una turbolenta famiglia. In questo lussureggiante paradiso, in un intreccio di passioni ardenti, amori clandestini e violenza, si muovono i protagonisti di questo libro.
The author goes to the heart of a marriage between a naive young artist and her handsome phycian husband. At first, everything is idyllic. Then one terrible night she commits an act she will regret for the rest of her life. An act that gives her husband the ultimate weapon: blackmail.
Nouvelle Angleterre. A vingt-deux ans, réceptionniste aux Verreries Wright, la splendide Jewel est prête à tout pour échapper à la médiocrité de son existence. Le temps d'une soirée, dans la somptueuse demeure des Wright, elle sent que sa vie pourrait changer aux côtés de Jeff, un brillant homme d'affaires... Jeune héritière de la dynastie Wright, Gwen n'a, elle, que faire du luxe qui l'entoure et préfère passer ses journées dans les livres. Jusqu'à ce qu'elle tombe sous le charme de Stan, un simple électricien. C'est alors que sa rencontre avec Jewel et les terribles révélations de celle-ci vont tout faire basculer... Secrets de famille, jalousies sociales, rivalités amoureuses... Quand le destin frappe à nouveau, c'est pour plonger les deux femmes dans un tourbillon de désir, de vengeance et de trahison qui va les mener au bout d'elles-mêmes...
Quand le grand vent de liberté des années soixante-dix envoie valser les traditions et les secrets bien gardés de toute une famille... Le dernier roman de Belva Plain, la reine de la saga familiale. A trente ans, Laura McAllister ne sait plus où elle en est. Investie dans une carrière qui la comble, elle est mariée à un homme qui la préférerait femme au foyer, et doit subir les foudres de sa mère, qui a une vision de la femme pour le moins conventionnelle. Sa rencontre avec Nick va venir tout chambouler. Au contact de ce beau photographe, Laura se sent pousser des ailes. Enfin, elle s'avoue ce qu'elle se cache depuis si longtemps : non, son mariage ne la rend pas heureuse, c'est en femme libre qu'elle veut désormais s'épanouir. Mais ce que Laura ignore, c'est que, pour s'affranchir du carcan McAllister, elle va devoir faire face aux zones d'ombre du passé maternel. Aura-t-elle le courage de briser les tabous familiaux et d'en assumer les douloureuses conséquences ?
Mit 50 Dollar und dem Kopf voller Träume zieht der junge Adam Armring zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts in den Westen der USA. Jahrzehnte später wird er seinen Erben ein blühendes Unternehmen übergeben. Er wird die große Liebe finden - und verraten. Er wird Erfolge feiern - und die Schrecken zweier Weltkriege erfahren. Und er wird ein Familiengeheimnis entdecken, dass ihn weit in die Vergangenheit führt...
Die Geschichte einer Familie, deren Glück nach außen hin vollkommen scheint. Doch der Schein trügt. Denn hinter der Fassade von Zufriedenheit und Perfektion spielt sich die Tragödie einer mißhandelten und mißbrauchten Ehefrau ab. Doch aus Angst und Scham schweigt sie, bis es zur Katastrophe kommt.
Stürmische Zeit der Ernte - bk1540; Bastei Lübbe Verlag; Belva Plain; pocket_book; 1994
Frauen- und Gesellschaftsroman aus dem Milieu jüdischer Immigranten in den Südstaaten z.Z. des amerikanischen Bürgerkrieges (1. Hälfte des 19. Jh.).
De levensgeschiedenis van een succesvolle Amerikaanse chirurg, tevens de geschiedenis van zijn familie in de eerste helft van de 20e eeuw.
Geweld, politieke intriges en hartstocht rond een invloedrijke familie op een Caraïbisch eilandje.
Kurz vor ihrer Hochzeit mit einem Kollegen wird die New Yorker Rechtsanwältin Jennie von ihrer Vergangenheit eingeholt.
Quand les parents de Robb, de modestes fermiers, meurent dans un accident de voiture, leur compagnie d'assurances propose de financer les études de droit que le jeune homme rêve de suivre. Sa fiancée, Lily, l'attend patiemment, mais Robb tombe amoureux de la jolie Ellen, et rompt avec Lily, qui aura beaucoup de mal à s'en remettre.
Po śmierci matki tr�jkka rodzeństwa opuszcza małą mieścinę w Ohio, rozpoczynając nowe życie. Robią oszałamiające kariery, pławią się w niewyobrażalnym luksusie. Są młodzi, piękni, przebojowi, otacza ich aura sukcesu. Amerykański sen? Do czasu... schovat popis
Relié.
Se servant comme fil conducteur, ou plutôt comme fille conductrice, du sympathique personnage d'Anna qui aura 78 ans à la dernière page et commencera à dicter ses mémoires, l'auteur réussit une très belle aventure romanesque digne de son précédent "Les Farrel."
Trio inseparable depuis leurs annees d'etudes, Amanda, Cecile et Norma se sont promis de ne jamais oublier l'amitie qui les unit. Cecile, elegante et fortunee, s'apprete a epouser son fiance de longue date tandis que ses deux amies nourrissent chacune l'espoir d'un beau mariage. Norma est vive, spirituelle et bien que dotee d'un physique ingrat, elle reve de rencontrer l'homme de sa vie. Pour la belle Amanda aussi, l'amour doit etre au rendez-vous mais elle souhaite avant tout fuir la mediocrite de ses origines... Et lorsque Larry, le frere de Norma, lui demande sa main, elle accepte sans hesiter, certaine d'arriver a aimer cet homme bon et tellement epris d'elle. Mais le destin des trois jeunes femmes va sombrer dans le drame lorsqu'eclate au grand jour un terrible scandale. Cecile et Norma devront alors prendre parti pour ou contre Amanda et choisir entre le c ur et la raison, entre les liens du sang et ceux de l'amitie..."
Se servant comme fil conducteur, ou plutôt comme fille conductrice, du sympathique personnage d'Anna qui aura 78 ans à la dernière page et commencera à dicter ses mémoires, l'auteur réussit une très belle aventure romanesque digne de son précédent "Les Farrel."
Berlin, rok 1938. Hartzingerovi se obávají o svůj osud a pokoušejí se získat peníze a cestovní pasy, aby se mohli dostat z Německa. Vyhlídka na rozloučení se vším, co je dosud obklopovalo a co tak důvěrně znali, s domovem, s přáteli a dokonce i s rodným jazykem, vyháněla 18letou Karlu ven, do známého parku. Pokaždé si říkala: Tak dnes naposled...Jednoho dne se zde setkává s Waltrem. Právě teď, když je málo času, láska vykvétá... Autorka rozvíjí životní osudy matky a dcery. Těhotná Karla prchá před fašisty, azyl nachází u příbuzných v USA. Její tajemství je ale strašlivé, otcem jejího dítěte je příslušník SS. V zájmu dítěte uzavře Karla sňatek z rozumu, tím se odsuzuje k věčnému mlčení. Její dcera Eve vyrůstá, aniž by věděla, kdo vlastně je... Je ale možné takové tajemství navždy udržet pod pokličkou...?
Mladá naivní malířka a její manžel - lékař - prožívají manželskou krizi. Z počáteční idyly se manželství stává pro ženu noční můrou, protože se dopustila přečinu, kterým ji manžel může vydírat. A cenou za jeho mlčení jsou jejich dvě děti...
Hlavnou úlohou v tomto príbehu je osemdesiatpäť ročná Annette, matka dvoch ženatých synov. Dlhé roky žije sama na vidieku, no namiesto pokojnej staroby ju čaká rozčarovanie. Jej veľká rodina sa ocitá v rozklade, žije roztrúsená po celom východnom pobreží Spojených štátov a bezmála všetci sú rozhašterení. Annette skúsi vymyslieť plán aby rodinu opäť dala dokopy...
Napínavý román o osudech mocné plantážnické rodiny ovládající celý ostrov v Karibském moři.
Historický ženský román z doby války Severu proti Jihu se odehrává převážně v New Orleansu v rodině židovských přistěhovalců. Hlavní hrdinkou rodinné ságy je Miriam, dcera německého přistěhovalce, kterému se podařilo v Americe zbohatnout. Obě jeho děti se z ghetta v německé vesnici rázem dostávají do bohatého sídla v New Orleansu, kde je obklopuje přepych a jižanská přívětivost. Dcera se provdá za jižanského gentlemana, jemuž porodí dvojčata, ale její manželství není šťastné a jediného důvěrníka má ve svém bratrovi, studujícím na severu země. Válka všechno změní, rozdělí rodinu na dva tábory, ale většině z nich dá možnost postavit se čelem ke skutečnému životu v boji o přežití. V těchto krušných letech si hrdinka uvědomí svou cenu a najde odvahu bojovat i za své osobní štěstí po boku muže, jehož názory plně sdílí.
Všetci ľudia majú svoje tajomstvá. Potvrdzuje to aj Belva Pôain v románe, ktorý zachytáva osudy rodín bratov Billa a Cliffa Dawesovcov, najmä však Billovej dcéry Charlotty, ktorú si autorka všíma od detstva až do obdobia, keď sa z nej stáva zrelá a úspešná mladá žena - architektka. Charlotta dlhý čas zápasí s problémom, ako si zariadiť vlastný život. Vychováva ju prevažne otec, matka a k nej hlási sporadicky, žije zväčša v Európe a dcére sa venuje najmä vtedy, keď už je najhoršie. A predsa je to matka, ktorá jej po rokoch prezradí tajomstvo, ktoré gniavi otcovo i jej svedomie. Rovnako Charlotta sa prizná so svojim trápením Rogerovi, s ktorým chce natrvalo spojiť vlastný život. Ako v skutočnosti, tak aj v románe Po búrke vyjde slnko takmer nič sa neudeje bez nepríjemných problémov a komplikácií, rozchodov a opätovných stretnutí. Dej sa odohráva v mestečku Kingsley, do ktorého sa Charlotta vracia k otcovi aj potom, keď už žije v Bostone a usiluje sa naplniť sny a ciele, čo si predsavzala. Rozuzlenie tajomstiev prinesie veľká povodeň, ktorá sa strhne v Kingsley po dlhotrvajúcom lejaku. Ako sa hovorí, po búrke vyjde slnko....
